Countries in Full-Dive
by vastine
Summary: While the countries commenced with the usual world meeting between each other, Italy noticed that a certain friend, Japan, had been missing for hours. Soon enough, everyone else knew what was wrong. Worried that it had something to do with a certain RPG game Japan bought, along with a complex controller, they decide to join in and rescue him before it's too late.
1. Ground Level

«Ground Level: Missing»

It was just another day for a world meeting, as it always was on a Friday morning. Each country, out of the powerful eight (except one country present at the time), represented their share of problems back home and asked their fellow colleagues for a solution. That was always how things go for about two hours every weekday, except holidays.

"Okay, today's agenda: how to solve today's current issues throughout the world," Germany began. Representing one of the world's advanced economies, as well as within Continental Europe, his leadership is highly respected…although nowadays he has own set of problems at home.

"But there's far too many to discuss," America complained, apparently late as he passed through the entrance with one hand carrying a paper bag, "don't you think we should just discuss on just one for today?" He proceeded to sit between France and Russia, who watched with a blank expression as America took out the usual hamburger-soda meal from the bag before putting his legs upon the table and leaning back on his seat.

"He's right," France agreed, frowning at this act. He shrugged his shoulders to focus his attention back. "I'm already having a hard time with my boss at home," he explained. "At least we should discuss on how everyone else are doing in Europe, before we could think of something that would benefit everyone. If Europe suffers in the long run, so will be America and Japan, along with Russia and China, too. Their economy isn't far from advanced like ours, but it won't be long now."

"Not only that, both Spain and I will suffer," Italy added with concern. "It's been pretty crazy just attending my people arguing about taxes and unemployment. But again, Romano has to deal with Mafia back home, too..."

"But even if that happens, I don't think there will ever be a way to fix that, Italy," England added. "Not unless all 28 countries agree, it will be impossible. And I bet my own boss is having second thoughts on leaving the group."

Germany sighed in defeat. "Fine, we'll discuss Europe for today," he replied. Then without any interruption, all the countries present on that meeting listened to each other.

* * *

Halfway through, Italy noticed something was wrong.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, Germany," he began, as soon as he was called. "But haven't you noticed someone was missing this whole time?" To prove his point, Italy pointed at an empty seat between England and China.

"I don't think so," Germany replied, putting down his small piles of notes in front of him.

"Why?"

"Well, it's just that…Japan's really running late today. I haven't seen him since this meeting started. And for someone who usually shows up before the time, don't you think that's just strange?"

The whole room became silent. Everyone turned to glance at Japan's empty seat, as if he was actually there.

"Well, don't you three live together under the same roof?" France asked, eyeing both Italy and Germany. "When was the last time you both saw him?"

"We haven't seen him since last night," Germany explained. "Actually, it was after dinner that we last saw him."

"He said something about playing this role-playing game," Italy continued. "I didn't really understand it and I wasn't listening to him."

"Role-playing game?" America sat up from his seat. Until now, he had fallen asleep. "What is it called?"

"Sword Art Online," Germany responded. "And I remember seeing him carrying a box about the size of someone's head. I just assumed it's just a helmet for the game and the console itself."

"I think I know what it looks like," China spoke for the first time. Then he stood up and gently placed a small box on the table. The box was already opened, which contained a helmet that would fit a fully-grown human's head.

"Is this it?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's the one," Italy answered, pointing at it. "It's a little different from what Japan had, but it's still the same."

China slipped the helmet on, which fit him snugly. "I have a good feeling about what this game is," he muttered. "And you decide on what I'm about to tell you, whether this is good or bad."

"Tell us," France queried. "We all need a break from all this world issues anyway."

"Whatever this Sword Art Online Kiku is playing," China slowly explained, as his hands moved around the headgear and his fingers twirled around the wires, "it will give the player the ultimate experience in role-playing games. Beyond the game controllers most children are still used to, but definitely beyond using a keyboard and mouse. It's not where someone watches their player go around town or battle evil creatures, but more like the players are playing in that world itself. You will be your own character, including the five senses we're all accustomed to. Even if it's a virtual world, it's no different than living in the real world. When a creature scratches you, you will feel it. If it's RPG, then it will either include other players or on your own; I'm sure America knows enough about this."

"Of course, I do," America agreed, grinning. "It's basically a first-person game, via inside a virtual world. I know most games like these will have a multiplayer setting." Then he paused and widened his eyes at China. "So what you're telling us, that Sword Art Online has a multiplayer system?"

"We won't know until we get a copy of the game," Germany said, standing up. "When was it released?"

"From what I've heard from Japan two days ago," China replied, "there was a beta on it a month before that, but its full release wasn't until a week ago. If Japan only got the game yesterday, he's already in trouble."

"Why?" all five countries asked.

"On the same day the game was released, it turns out about less than 200-250 people already died. Apparently from the game's console called the NerveGear. It would send shock waves through the brain, if you try to remove it by force. And the only way to remove it safely is to beat the game."

"That should be nothing to me," America hushed in excitement as he stood up. "How levels do I have to beat?"

"Rumour states that you need to beat all 100 levels, including the final boss. Each boss is harder than the last, sometimes almost impossible to beat in a non-virtual world. If you die, you die in real life."

America sat back, disappointed. "I don't think I can do that alone," he replied, "but that doesn't mean I won't stop myself from rescuing Japan."

"We're all thinking the same thing, idiot," England agreed. "And besides, we've been in a similar situation before…"

Silence once more.

"So does the game support all six languages, China?" Germany asked, switching to another subject. "Most of us here understand English, but it'll be more comfortable for us if we can read our own native language.

"It depends on what language you set the NerveGear on," China explained. He took off his helmet and held it up. "Since the game and gear all came from Japan, it could either come with English or Japanese, but you need to ask if it supports German. I'm sure there are settings for that."

"And you don't need to fuss over on the language barrier in these kinds of games either," America added. "If you set it up in German, only you can read the location, items, and dialogue in that language. So Arthur's settings and mine will be in English. As for communication between players however, the system translates it to the preferred language of another player. If I send Russia a message within the game, he will get it in Russian. And if he replies back, I'll get the reply in English."

"How about killing another player?" Russia finally spoke for the first time. He had been silent and hasn't said a word since the meeting began.

"It's the same as committing murder in real life," China simply replied, shuddering a little. "Again, if you kill a player there, you kill him off on the other world. If the other players see you, they will know you're a player killer."

"How can you tell?" Italy asked.

"Red means enemy, yellow means someone who breaks the game's rules, and green is merely a player who also follows the rules. Simple as that. But of course, there could be more colour cursors once we're in the game."

"So I guess we hold off the meeting for now and get Japan out of there then?" France added alongside Italy.

"Well, by now, he's already levelled up after days in there. But if he's not, then we might catch up."

"Okay, let's go rescue Japan!" America yelled.

"So how was it that you know so much about RPG games, China?" England asked, as everyone stood up to leave.

"Well, if you have nothing to do, just do what most kids do nowadays…" China replied, shrugging. "If you feel like they're not motivated enough to study, then they'll be in front of a monitor."

And with that, all seven nations rushed out, leaving a certain "eighth" country behind.

Without a word, he also stood up followed the others, his mind the same objective as theirs.

* * *

_"Similar situation" = referring to RomaHeta. I believe there's a fanfiction based on this, so my suggestion would be to read it. But if not, then search it via YouTube._


	2. Floor One

«Floor One: Full-Dive into Aincrad»

As the countries quickly rushed to any electronic store still selling the game as well as the NerveGear, their hopes of finding such items and rescuing Japan slimmed. Days after its release debut, the game was still the most popular overall and worldwide. One could say it "has beaten any RPG game from the past". However, this didn't stop them.

In a certain shop where America regularly goes to buy new games, which he spends time more often than attending world meetings, their prayers were answered. After selling all his old games, since he completed each one, all six countries managed to get the entire package: the game and the NerveGear. Only China bought the game separately.

As for the "eighth" country, he merely took the same as the others, only he wasn't noticed. Luckily, he had the last one. And once everyone reached America's house, which was right beside the game shop, each one began to set up the NerveGear in the living room of the house.

"Okay, since we need the Internet to log on," America began, running back into the living room with a USB outlet, "I think. We have until midnight until we all log in. That's about five minutes from now." He flipped open his laptop.

"But in case, something happens," England replied, plugging his NerveGear into the outlet, "I think we have to do it early. And I've been wondering about something." He turned to look at China. "Once we stay in the game, we can't get out, right?" he asked. "Unless we beat the game..."

China nodded, glancing around as the others plugged their NerveGears in and slipped it on. "Yes," he answered. "But I should warn you: as soon as we're logged in, our real bodies stay in one position. Asleep, but in a coma-like state." He paused for a moment as he lied down between Italy and England. "So once we wake up, all of us would look different than we were before."

"We might end up in a hospital, too," France added, lying beside England. "Just hope that someone does find us..."

"I hope so," Italy agreed, nodding. "If all the countries, including us, meet again for another world meeting and they find us missing, they'll look for us."

"But we need to warn them by leaving a note," China warned, sitting up once more. Taking out a small piece of paper and a pencil from his trousers pocket, he wrote down the warning:

_If you find us still asleep, that's good. Japan's been missing for a while and now we're in this game called Sword Art Online. We have a hunch that he's in there and might be in danger._

_We're deep in a coma right now with the NerveGear on our heads, but don't try to force it off our heads. The helmet comes with an electromagnetic wave that would fry our brains and kill us, so it's best to leave it._

_For now, just call for help and let the others know of our situation. Hopefully we'll be fine when all this is over._

"If they try to force out the helmet from our heads, we'll die," China explained. He folded the paper in half and placed it beside him. "And even if the power's out, the NerveGear has a battery for backup. But if that battery runs out, then..." He looked disturbed as he shook his head.

There was no need to finish it.

"Okay," America began slowly, switching over to a new subject, "so are we ready then?" Then he slipped on the NerveGear and lied down between Russia and France.

"Yeah, we're all ready," replied the other seven.

"Alright, do we see the clock at our left?" China asked. And, assuming everyone has the feature, he added, "as soon as the clock hits 12:00, close your eyes and yell, 'Link Start!'"

_11:59:56..._

_11:59:57..._

_11:59:58..._

_11:59:59..._

_12:00:00..._

"LINK START!"

There was this feeling of falling headfirst into a white unknown, then through streaks of rainbow, followed by a test screen for all the five senses and a language screen*. After typing in the username and the password, a welcome screen was shown.

_«Welcome to Sword Art Online»_

Then it was black.

* * *

The sky was blue, with wisps of clouds floating there. Lifting a hand, they examined themselves. They must be lying on a stony ground. Turning to their side, they saw a certain companion lying on their side.

Blond messy hair, very bushy eyebrows, green eyes...and seemingly weak armour?

"England?" America asked, sitting up and crawling over to the young man. He shook him until he heard him swearing. "I think we're just not far from the city. There are people walking by, but they're not noticing us."

"It's you," England replied, stretching as he sat up. "What's with your outfit?"

America looked down. Similar to England's outfit, his hands wore fingerless black gloves, dark blue trousers, faded red shirt, a breastplate, and black ankle boots. A plain sword is strapped on his back.

"Well, since you've never played this type of game before," America replied, shrugging, "this is usually what you wear when you start out. If you need a better outfit and equipment to protect yourself, you have to improve your skills first." Then by accident, he swiped down with his right hand and out came five small circles vertically lined up.

"Whoa," England noticed, copying him, "I guess this is the menu." He tapped each circle to see what each has.

"Hey, England," America called, "do you feel something feels weird, like someone is with us, but they aren't there?"

"How's that possible?"

"When we all dove in, I suppose one of us had a faulty NerveGear and woke up here apparently transparent."

England shrugged. "Okay," he replied, almost a mumble. "If you say so…"

"Hey!"

Both of them turned around and saw Germany, France, and Italy running towards them. Germany wore a white long-sleeved tee, grey trousers, matching ankle boots and a breastplate. Rather than a sword, a double-bladed axe is strapped behind him. France carries a rapier, which hung from his waist, and wore a navy-blue shirt, black trousers, brown boots, as well as a hockey breast pad. And Italy has a cutlass strapped on his side and is wearing a small breastplate above a long-sleeve white tee, light brown trousers, and dark brown boots.

"Hello, you two," England greeted them. "Did you already know about this?" Motioning his hand downward, he opened the menu.

Germany nodded. "Francis told me how," he replied, opening his. "He did it by accident. Do you want me to add you two?"

"Who's Francis?" America wondered aloud, his voice struggling to prevent any laughter. "It's not you, Italy, right?" He glanced at the young redhead.

"No," Italy replied.

"It's my human name," France stepped in. "I suppose all of us are using the names our bosses gave us. And it would be weird to use our country names here, since no one would actually believe that we are literally countries in human form. So in here, call me Francis, alright?" He glared at England.

"Okay, show us how you'd add us then, Francis," England retorted, emphasising the name. "If you're that smart..."

Without a word, he swiped open the menu, touched the third button down, opened up the map and clicked the two dots above him. And selecting the "plus" button, he sent a message to both America and England.

"You should be getting them right about..." France said, trailing off for a moment, "now."

Suddenly both America and England received a short beep, followed by a short message.

_«Francis would like to join your party»_

Both of them accepted the invitation. At the same time, they accepted another "hidden" invitation from a certain country underneath Francis' request.

_«Matthew would like to join your party»_

Shortly afterward, America and England did the same to France, so he could add them as well.

"Who's Arthur?" France asked.

Looking away, England raised his hand.

"And Alfred?"

"Me!" America cheerily yelled in reply. Then he frowned. "Okay, let me try doing the same to England."

At that moment, England saw the request.

_«Alfred would like to join your party»_

Although he couldn't see it, there's another "hidden" invite underneath.

"You know," England replied, "I could've just denied your request because of how annoying you are. But seeing that this is an emergency, I'll help you this one time." The without waiting for a reply, he accepted the request and quickly sent a similar one to America.

_«Arthur would like to join your party»_

"I could've said the same thing to you." Smirking, America pressed Accept (while accepting the invisible invite). "After that, both of us will forget this ever happened."

"Now, my turn," Germany said.

Soon enough, America and England received a message.

_«Ludwig would like to join your party»_

"Ludwig's your human name?" America asked, pressing the accept button. "I'm pretty sure I've heard that name before. Wasn't that the guy who did Ode to Joy, I think?"

"Wow, do you even listen to any other music besides the crap you listen to?" England rolled his eyes. "At least he had some musicians who can write." He pointed to Germany.

"You don't need to say that, though," Germany replied, shaking his head. "There were other people who had the same name as me, as it was a common name in the past. But yes, Ludwig is my human name."

"But it matches you so well!" America added. "In a good way."

"Now, it's my turn!" Italy spoke up. "Make sure you add me, too!"

Within seconds, both America and England heard a beep and opened the menu.

_«Feliciano would like to join your party»_

Both of them pressed "Accept". And once finished, did the same to Italy, who gladly accepted the two.

"So, where do we start?" Italy asked.

"Don't you think we should know how to use the weapons we have first before we do anything else?" Germany suggested.

"He's right, Arthur," America agreed. "Other than China and me, I don't think all you know how to use a virtual weapon."

"But it shouldn't be any different than using a literal sword, right?" Francis wondered, tapping the pommel of his rapier.

"Look, let's just find China and Russia and add them as our friends before we learn the controls," England interrupted. "I know we all wanted to get better, but we have to find those two first. Out of us five, we don't fully trust those two, alone or together. And besides, Japan's probably at the higher floors by now."

"Let's go!" America ran ahead of the group. "Once we find those two, let's go practice and get you guys used to using your weapons." He paused for a moment. "And while we're at it, let's start getting used to our human names…"

Searching around _«The City of Beginnings»_ for two people might seem easy, but the city alone was almost like a country in terms of size. Within an hour, Russia and China were still nowhere to be found, although at this point everyone had a habit of calling each other's humanised names.

* * *

"This is impossible," Arthur said, panting with exhaustion. His hands are on his knees. "It's already been an hour. Where the hell are they?"

"And since we haven't added them yet," Ludwig added, scanning the menu for any possible players nearby, "we can't track them down either. From what I could tell about this city, it's rather huge."

"Maybe if we hear someone talking in Chinese or Russian," Francis suggested. "We might know it's them."

"But none of us know either languages, only our own," Alfred replied. "If we see someone really tall, that's Russia."

The five young men walked along the streets, examining each stall for some curio or any valuable item for trade. They watched a young boy around their age paying the merchant, who was also a player, for an apple for a few coins before running off. The boy had better equipment than all of them were, which somewhat annoyed them.

"So it's no different than the outside world, then," Ludwig spoke up for the first time after nearly two hours of searching.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, a little confused.

"Having to pay for anything with money. To get something, you pay the required amount." Then Ludwig paused. "So how exactly do you get money?"

Alfred stopped in his steps, as he was the leader, and faced them. "It's the same when you need to improve your skills and your armour," he simply answered. "You defeat the boss, or hunt for animals." And without a word, he turned around.

When he saw a familiar tall figure not far from where they stood.

"Russia!" Alfred called out to the figure, which was at one of the stalls, paying the merchant. He ran ahead without the others stopping him.

"Hello, everyone," Russia replied. Thanking the merchant, he faced Alfred. "Have you found China yet?" he asked Francis, wide-eyed. "I haven't seen him so far."

Francis shivered for a moment. "No luck," he responded. "We were looking for him, too."

"Looks like you've been on your own for a while now," Ludwig noticed at Russia's attire.

Unlike them, Russia wore a long red coat, black trousers, black boots, and a white scarf. But what surprised them the most was the sword strapped behind his back. Its blade was broader than a normal sword, based on the scabbard that held it.

"Where did you find all these?" Arthur wondered. He eyed the sword with surprise "It doesn't look like the clothes we've been wearing since we came here."

"I've been hunting," Russia explained. "I hunted in the meadows just outside the city. After defeating a wild coyote, I managed to get this coat. And after hunting for a bear, deep in the woods, I got this sword. I'm still getting used to wielding it, as it's a little heavy. But I threw away my first sword." He unsheathed his sword and hit a brick wall beside him, leaving a slight scratch on the bricks. "And because we're all looking for the same person, I thought I should add all of you as well."

Once Russia was finished, they felt a slight shiver down their spine. Even Ludwig felt a little afraid and jealous that Russia had already improved his skills on his own. He felt as if Russia already picked up the controls before everyone else had. And although he knew his older brother, Prussia (or with his human name, Gilbert), does nothing but play video games nowadays, most of those games purchased were released only to very few people for beta testing; it's done so to make sure the developers did nothing wrong while making the game.

_«Ivan would like to join your party»_

_Ivan?_ Ludwig thought. He glanced at Ivan with suspicion, before looking at the others, who had already accepted him. _His bosses named him after all those kings? But then again, it's a common name even in Germany…And for now I need to figure out how he managed to improve his skills within a short time…_Taking a deep breath, he pressed _«Accept»_.

"Uh, Ludwig?" Alfred's voice rang inside Ludwig's head, throwing him back into reality. "You alright, dude?"

"What?" Ludwig asked aloud.

"I thought you were lagging after you let Ivan join the party," Alfred explained.

"I'm not. I just spaced out for some reason."

"And my name is not Russia in this game," Ivan warned. He glared at Alfred.

Silence.

"Come on, let's find China before it gets dark," Arthur broke in. Then pointed something behind him with his thumb.

"And since you're much better than we are, Ivan," Ludwig suggested, "why not go in front of us?"

"I don't think anyone will attack you within the city's borders," Ivan replied. "It's a safe area anyway."

"If that's true, then maybe I'll try to lead," Francis answered. "But you guys help out, too."

With that, Francis led the group, with Alfred trailing behind him and Ivan at the back.

As for Ludwig, he still didn't trust Ivan at all.

As they went deeper into the alleys, the sky was already dark and the lanterns are being lit up.

"Great, so far China's still nowhere to be found," Arthur muttered. "And it's getting dark!" He strode up to Alfred. "What are we going to do now?" he asked angrily.

"Maybe some of us should find a place to stay for the night," Feliciano advised. Since Ivan joined the group, he was silent and remained beside Ludwig as close as he could…and still was at that moment. "The inns are probably full by now."

"We'll do it, once we find China," Alfred replied. He turned to Feliciano. "And even if you find a place to stay, we don't even know how to find you."

"Shh," Francis hushed at them.

"What do you mean, "shh!" ?" England asked.

"Shut up, I think I hear something," Francis said.

And nearby was someone speaking a very foreign language. Soon enough, the entire group quickly rushed toward the source and found the person they had been searching for, after 4 hours into full-dive.

"China!" Feliciano cried out. He ran towards the young man and threw his arms around him. "We thought you already went without us!" Then he quickly released him.

"Where have you been?" Alfred asked. "We've been looking for you!"

"I've been wandering around here, looking for something of interest," China explained.

"Like...?" Francis interrupted.

"Well, we need to assign roles. Since this is a role-playing game, some of us need to be a healer, a substitute, and a strategist."

"He's right," Alfred agreed. "We all can't be just mere fighters. That's not going to bring us any progress. But we'll think about that once we find a place to stay." He turned to China. "So you've been searching for any healing potion this whole time?"

China nodded. "I know I should've joined you first," he added. "But even if we are in a group, we are on our own. We decide ourselves on what to do." He looked at Ivan. "That's why he's already levelled up ever since we dove into the game."

"Well, since everyone's here, why don't we add you to the party?" Arthur advised.

After the seven countries sent their requests to China, who accepted them through a very simple method (selecting all of the requests and pressing "Accept" all at once, including the "transparent" one), they were given the same message in return.

_«Yao would like to join your party»_

"Yao is a pretty cool name," Alfred said, pressing accept. "It's a compliment," he quickly added, when Yao stared at him.

"Fine," Yao mumbled. "Okay, let's find an inn and stay there for tonight. Tomorrow we leave for the fields."

"Sounds like a good plan," Francis agreed.

"Since I managed to earn some money, I'll pay for it," Ivan added, drawing out a very small bag.

"But next time, we pay our own share."

* * *

* info for all countries

America, Canada, England: _Language » English_

China: _Language » 中文_

France: _Language » Français_

Germany: _Language »Deutsch_

Italy: _Language » Italiano_

Japan: _Language » 日本_

Russia: _Language » Русский_

For all languages beside English, this will be the confirmation screen:

_«Are you sure this is the user's preferred language?»_

Depending on what language the user used, it will be on that language. All the requests, items, and messages will be set.

Because of the incident within the opening day of the game, in which every user revealed their true identities, including their faces, every user will be as they are.

At all times, the characters must be called by their country names (full formal, full informal, native). And their real names were confidential by their bosses for that reason. Only their real first name was used in the game. And only after the game will they be able to revert back to their country name.

While they were adding each other, all the invitations they sent to one another all came with a "hidden and transparent" invite right underneath. For example:

_«Alfred would like to join your party»_

_«Matthew would like to join your party»_

* * *

_Canada/Matthew is pretty much a glitch character. Because of the fact that he's in sage mode, the system in which the NerveGear operates on made him both a game guide and a character with fighting and healing roles. So he's a very important character…and because he's in sage mode in the game, no one can see him (including boss monsters). He's pretty much like Yui from SAO._


	3. Floor Two

«Floor Two: Another World Meeting…in Aincrad»

After paying for the night's lodging (since Ivan wanted to have a room for himself), all of them held a small meeting in one of rooms (shared between Arthur and Alfred, but with separate beds).

"Okay, so first off," Alfred began, "we need a plan. I know Yao said something about assigning our roles. And he's right."

"So how does it work?" Francis wondered aloud. "Is it the same as a real-life battle?"

Yao nodded. "Yes," he replied. "It does. If we know each other's battle style and weapon, we might determine who gets the first few strikes and who will deal the final blow on the enemy."

"We'll find out tomorrow who gets what," Alfred added. "But I suppose Yao and I could tell what will be your role at first." He turned to Yao. "Right?"

Yao smiled. "Yeah," he answered.

"First, Francis and Feliciano, both of you have really light swords, which is really helpful especially for the first strikes," Alfred pointed out. "If it's possible, you can buy time for the others while dealing some damage at the same time. The damage won't be great, but you can stun the enemies." He turned to Ludwig. "Did Feli ever did something at a quick pace before?" he asked.

"He usually takes everything at a slow pace," Ludwig explained, "but when you trigger his "fear" mechanism, like he won't have any siesta if he doesn't exercise, then he might run faster than he normally would. I guess he has this huge stamina stored inside him whenever he goes to sleep during the day."

"Perfect. Then both he and Francis will be on the front lines. As the starting group in battle, agility and haste should be their main attribute. Their job will be primarily to give us time to prepare for the next phase, which brings us to another topic.

"To kill the enemy, at least two or three players should give their best shot in dealing great damage. Now these players should have strength as one of their attributes and are the ones that take more time to recover their energy until they could strike again. Ivan and Ludwig would fall into the category, with Ivan's huge sword and Ludwig's double-headed battle-axe. Low dexterity, but high amounts of force, you guys are the opposite of Francis and Feliciano."

"But in case something unexpected happens," Yao continued, "like one of us gets hurt or there's a trap, there should be two other people who will back them up. And since our goal here is not die before we could even reach Japan, Arthur and I will be the backup. Our attacks and defences might be lower than all of you, but should be enough to fight against the enemy. But besides being a reserve, Arthur and I will have another role. Arthur will have the trait of sensing danger as well as detect any character or trap within the game, but because this game doesn't involve any magic of some kind, everything will be in crystals. And I will have the ability to figure out how we can increase our level and what we can do about it.

"Wait, if Arthur can sense a character," Feliciano asked, "how come he couldn't "tell" where Japan is?"

"It's obvious," Yao replied. "Right now, Arthur has a really low level of "knowing" where he is, so the higher the level is, the stronger it gets. Just like all our abilities here. If we keep improving, then surely our skills will level up as well as our defence. By now, he's already at a much higher level than all of us here, including Ivan."

"Yao's right," Ivan agreed, nodding. "I'm only at Level 3."

Alfred's eyes widened. "Already?" he asked. "No wonder your sword and armour are much better compared to ours."

"Still, we don't know how we'll call Japan," Feliciano insisted. "We don't know his human name (since he's never told Ludwig and I in real life), how powerful he's become, and what he's wearing. Most of all, where he's at right now."

"That's true," Francis agreed. "Do you think we should come up with a nickname for him, until he finally find him? We can't just call him his country name."

"How about "Miku"?" Feliciano suggested. "I heard him mumbling it over and over in his room one time."

"Sounds like a girl name," Arthur replied. "How about we just refer to him as his country's capital, Tokyo?"

"I guess that will do," Alfred replied, nodding. "So from this day on, until we find Japan ourselves, we will refer to him as _«Tokyo»_!"

"So _«Tokyo»_ it is," Ivan agreed.

Then silence.

* * *

"So let's go back to what we're supposed to do while we're here," Yao began, switching everyone back into the main topic.

"Despite our positive attributes," he added, "we have our disadvantages. Like all role-playing games, a character both has some good things, as well as bad ones.

"We'll start with the agility/haste group, Feliciano and Francis. Although both of them have speed and endurance as their strength, their weakness is that their damage is really low. It's true that they have high hit points toward the enemy, but even after 100 hits it would be just a small scratch on them. From what I know about these enemies, as with all RPG I've played so far, they are huge and monstrous and can bring fatal blows to them. So what they should be concerned of the most is their defence. If they can do that, they might fight against the same enemy more than once.

"Now we'll shift to the strength group, Ludwig and Ivan. If Feliciano and Francis' weakness is the fact that their damage is low, you have it otherwise. Out of all seven of us, you have the highest number of potential damage to deal on your enemies. So if your attack power is your advantage, your stamina isn't. With one blow, it's takes away pretty much a huge amount of your energy, which is really hard to build up based on your current level. Ivan is at a higher level than Ludwig, but even that's not enough against a typical boss monster. Both of you will only fight one time because of this. But if necessary, we might use you mid-battle, so we could gain some upper hand. What you need to worry about until then is to find a way to recover your stamina faster while keeping your defences high.

"As for the Healer/Finder/Backup group, Arthur and I, we have the largest disadvantage out of the two groups. Because our role of mostly to help out you guys, our defence and attack are low compared to either the agility or even the strength groups. So throughout the battle, both of us will mostly likely be alongside the strength group since their defence is higher. If an enemy's attack is coming towards us, we'll have Ludwig and Ivan take care of that. It won't drain away their stamina, however, but their health will reduce a little. Yet our advantage varies from boosting up health and stamina to keeping the enemy at bay, as well as judge on the enemy's attributes and surroundings."

"Hang on," Francis interrupted. "I think we forgot about Alfred. How about him?"

"Because you asked," Alfred explained, "my role can change from someone with strength to agility. I don't know why, but I guess it's my experience with playing these kinds of games. But still my role isn't any special from anyone else in this room. The fact that I'm the youngest here is irrelevant. The same thing for Yao; he plays these games just as much as I do, but he knows more than I do. But unlike him and Arthur, I can't recover anyone or sense any danger. I can sense how one feels, keep attacking without getting tired, land a damaging blow without wasting any energy, but I can't do the rest."

"So just what kind of character are you, then?" Arthur asked, smirking. "Don't tell us you're the leader here. Just because your attributes can change from one thing to another doesn't make you special."

"Maybe just someone with a high willpower who won't let anything stop him from saving his friend," Alfred replied, shrugging. "A strategist, maybe?"

"Close enough." Ludwig shrugged. "If you know much about how to attack a boss, then maybe that's your role, after all."

"So his priority is not to get us killed, then," Ivan spoke up. "I won't like it if anyone of us dies."

"I don't want to die," Feliciano whined. "But I'll try my best."

"So that's the plan," Yao stood up to leave. "We leave at dawn and spend the morning practising, okay?"

Minutes later, as the other left to turn in for the night, only Alfred and Arthur remained.

* * *

"I wonder how you managed to get that many roles," Arthur said to Alfred, as they both head off to bed. "It's not like the system had a glitch on you when you logged in."

"I don't really know, Arthur," Alfred replied. "But maybe it is."

As for _«Matthew»_, he decided to fall asleep with his head on a small desk across the room. Unlike the others, he was more than just a character in a game.

_I'll do anything to get them through any challenges_ he thought. _I'm their guide for this game. I have the largest advantage above everyone else…_


	4. Floor Three

«Floor Three: Fun Times With Weapons»

For the young men who had just awoken, morning seemed to come a little bit too fast.

"What the-?" Alfred yelled, leaping off from the bed and quickly slipped on his boots. "Morning already?"

"What?" Arthur repeated, following suit. "Why didn't you wake me up, you bloody idiot? I thought you made an alarm for the time!"

"How should I know? I'm not even close to managing the mechanics that well!"

"Ugh, let's go outside. They must be in the fields by now."

Running down the stairs of the inn and into the street (with the "hidden" being just behind them), they sprinted towards the meadow fields just at the outskirts of the city.

* * *

"Alfred, Arthur," Francis called them, waving as they approached them. "I thought you two would never wake up."

"We're just about to start," Feliciano added, tapping the pommel of his cutlass. "Ivan's going to show us how to attack."

"Ivan?" Alfred asked, glancing at Ivan, who was talking with Yao.

"You've got to be kidding," Arthur replied. "Out of all the people, it has to be _him_?" he hissed to Francis.

"He knows more about it than all six of us are," Francis muttered back. "And it won't be long now, if we all get it the first time."

"Good morning," Ivan began. He stood in front of everyone as he greeted the others with a smile. "Yao has asked me to let me demonstrate everyone on how to use our weapons and how to attack.

"Like everyone here, I didn't know how to move your weapon around and land a successful attack on an enemy. Depending on what type of weapon each of you carries, each type has a different preference. Some can be attacked with two hands and some with only one hand, based on the weight. Thin-bladed swords is a little easier to attack with, but as what Yao said before, it deals little to no damage; thick-bladed swords as well as axes is just the opposite, so I won't go into details.

"Now, when you'll try to attack, the very first thing you have to do is to position yourself within the ranges of your enemy." Then pointed to a wild boar running around close by. "Let's try it on a wild boar. They may seem harmless, but they're just as dangerous and will drain your health if they knock you over."

Walking towards the blue wild boar, he unsheathed his sword. Then he spread his feet apart, with his left foot forward and his right foot supporting his weight behind him, as well as his shoulders. He made sure he was balancing himself with the sword in his right hand and his left hand in front of him. Shifting his movement a little, his sword started to glow into a bluish colour.

"If you can see a blue glow on my sword," he added, "it means your weapon is charging up. It fills up quickly, so the timing is what matters next. All you have to do is look for a weak spot on the enemy. In this case…" He trailed off and began to run toward the boar.

"It's the wild boar!" he finished with a roar. With that, he shoved his blade into the belly of the small beast, jumped upward while slicing it apart and, removing his sword from the creature, landed on his feet. Behind him, the fragmented thing turned into a red silhouette before turning into many crystal pieces as it disappeared.

"Отличная работа, Иван," he whispered to himself in Russian. Then he stood up and slipped his sword back into its scabbard, as he checked his results.

_«Result»_

_Exp 12_

_Col 28_

_Items 1_

For the others who had witnessed it, they couldn't help but wonder if Ivan had intended himself to practise these movements rather than trying to find his friends. They wondered if he had other motives besides finding Japan, whose name was now referred to as Japan's literal capital name, _«Tokyo»_.

"So it's the same as fighting in a real sword-fight?" Francis asked. "Shouldn't be any different for me, then?"

Ivan nodded. "Yes," he answered. "It will take some getting used to, but hopefully over time, the skills will improve as well."

"I shouldn't be surprised why there are experience points earned after a battle," Alfred agreed. "And I'm certain you get money from the foe you kill. How would you know?"

"From the rumours I've heard around town," Yao explained, "Col is the currency around Aincrad. So it's the same for the Euro, Dollar, Rouble, Yuan, and Yen in our world. Right now, 28 Cols won't get you anything…not even a small health potion, which is about 140 Cols at least for the cheap ones."

"So I guess we should level up through these wild boars, huh?" Feliciano asked, wielding out his rapier. "It's been a long time since I've held a sword, but it shouldn't be any different." Then without a word, he ran off to a small herd of boars.

"But that doesn't mean you should act recklessly!" Ludwig shouted at him, as he caught up to him.

"Ah, even the backups need their training, too," Arthur muttered to himself, before joining Alfred.

Yao and Ivan quietly did their part in levelling up.

After two hours of practising, each character's level was already close to a two-digit number. The number of Cols they earned gradually increased into thousands and they already had a good supply of items in their inventory.

"Tomorrow, we'll try to find the dungeon," Yao explained to everyone. "There's a chance the boss will be there. If we can defeat it, our hopes of finding _«Tokyo»_ will increase." Glancing at each face, all determined, he added, "Now that we're in all this together, I have two things to tell all of you before we meet here tomorrow.

"Alfred might know of this skill, being an experienced RPG player himself, but if you need time to recover your stamina and someone to fill you in during a battle, you have to yell out _«Switch»_ followed by someone's name. In a team of two, which is the minimum number you can get (unless you're in a large group), saying someone's name isn't needed. The system will know that the other player will take care of the enemy for you, once you yell it out."

"Since all of us here added each other as friends, we're very much a party. In this case, we're a guild now. Anyway, because we're now a small guild, anyone can be called to the front lines, should one of us be in a condition in which they need to be away from battle while they heal up. That's why all of us should be on par with each other…our Experience points, levels, attacks and defences, and armour."

He paused and looked up at the sky.

"And the other one…" he began. "I hope none of you dies before all of us reach _«Tokyo»_. Whatever the reason _«Tokyo»_ is in this game, we have to find him.

"So all I'm saying is…

"Good luck, all of you."

Without a word, he placed his hand in front of him. Soon enough everyone's hands were piled on top of each other.

"To _«Tokyo»_," Yao said.

"To _«Tokyo»_!" they replied, before lifting their hands into the air.

* * *

Отличная работа, Иван = Well done, Ivan (Russian)


	5. Floor Four

«Floor Four: We Fight Illfang, part 1»

Walking back into the city, the group decided to head to a shop to change their armour. A fellow player ran the shop, as with all the player-run stores throughout the city. After receiving a quick hello and letting them know of some new items on stock, the young men split up as suggested by Yao.

"We should go in pairs," he explained to them. He glanced back at the rows of clothing and shelves of shoes at the back. "It'll be a good idea that all of us should have the appropriate outfit based on how we fight in combat. We'll meet by the cashier when we're done."

"Don't you think we should add style on that, too?" Francis asked, frowning at the idea that fashion is no concern. "I can't fight without looking good, you know."

"Well, if that's what you prefer," Yao replied, shrugging. "As long as you can fight and move well..." He turned to Feliciano. "Both of you should find an outfit that allows you to move quickly or maybe give you an increase to your speed or defence."

"Let's go find our outfits, then," Francis said, leading Feliciano into one of the aisles, where long coats, laced shirts, and silky yet comfortable trousers were.

After throwing away most of the Cols they earned from defeating the wild boars, their armour had grown by at least 50 points of their health.

* * *

"What's that you got there?" Alfred asked Yao, who pulled out a small book. "Is it some guide?"

Yao nodded. "Yeah," he answered. He began flipping the pages. "I found it lying around before meeting you guys outside earlier this morning. And before you ask, I haven't read it until now."

"Well, can it tell us where the boss is?" Arthur called out behind him. "I know there's already a few people who have defeated the monster, but it's been over a month since this game was released, if I can recall correctly."

"He's right," Francis agreed. "All the guides should be updated by now."

"Hmmm...well, it's in a labyrinth," Yao replied. Then he looked over at the others with a sly grin. "We're not far now."

Upon reaching the said labyrinth, they checked their equipment for the last time before stepping inside the dark maze. But it wasn't long before Feliciano spoke up.

"If we do manage to defeat the boss, what happens next?" he asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we get something in the end," Alfred replied. "But we move up to the next level."

"And we'll keep doing that until we find _«Tokyo»_?" Ludwig added. "Seems like a repetition."

"The higher floors we reach, the harder the difficulty the boss will get. That's why unless our level is high enough, our chances of defeating a boss slims down to zero."

Then as they walked on, they began to hear the rumbling footsteps above them.

"That's the boss alright," Francis said. "A giant monster."

"So do we have a plan?" Alfred asked.

And everyone stopped in their tracks. No one really expected this. Sitting together in a circle, they quickly planned out their strategy against the enemy.

"That's all we have for now," Yao explained. "Unless we finally see what our monster looks like, this will be our default plan."

With a nod from everyone, they stood up and walked on.

As they went further into the maze, they suddenly found themselves in a dark room. Unlike the corridors the passed through, this one was darker than night. There were no lights ahead of them and everything was still; only they could hear each other's breathing.

"Hey," Arthur said, tapping Alfred's shoulder, "you know in those games where when you're in a open field and you trigger something?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, I think that is what this room is for."

"And what makes you say that?" Ivan asked, grinning.

At that moment, all the lights suddenly lit up.

"This doesn't look good," Arthur muttered, shooting a glance across the room where they saw a large figure approaching towards them.

Everyone wielded their weapons and kept themselves alert. Feliciano and Francis quickly unsheathed their rapiers and ran toward the front lines.

"Let's go," Francis whispered to Feliciano.

But they were cut short when they found out how big the creature was.

It was about 20 stories tall, muscular, has bluish grey fur, and has deep red eyes. On one hand, it was carrying a huge shield. It wields a large bone axe.

"Guys, we need help here!" Feliciano called out.

The others rushed toward them and, when Francis pointed his rapier ahead of them, they followed the point and saw the monster.

"Do we still stick to the plan?" Ludwig asked Alfred. He drew out his axe. "We all agreed on this."

"It's 7 to 1," Francis added. "We could defeat this."

But Yao shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he replied to both of them.

"Why?" Ivan asked.

"This one has four HP bars."

"Dammit!" Arthur yelled out. Then he glanced up. "I think we should…"

"RUN TO THE BACK!" Alfred roared. He pointed to the back.

Just as the boss landed its first attack on them, they all fled from the scene towards the back. At the same time, three of the monsters' sentinels spawned. Thankfully, they dodged the blow, but still it was enough to reduce their health by 10%.

"Feli, Francis, after you defeat the sentinels, try to land some attacks on the monster, okay?" Arthur told the two. "If you need help, call Yao or me!" Then after muttering something under his breath, he restored their health back to 100%.

"We will!" Feliciano replied, he wielded out his rapier as he ran off with Francis, who followed him without a reply.

As Feliciano and Francis took care of the defence, Ivan, Ludwig, Yao, Arthur and Alfred huddled together for a plan.

"Arthur and I will still be the backups for everyone," Yao told them. "If there's a chance that Ludwig and Ivan do make their best attacks, and the boss still has a bit of HP left, we'll leave that to Alfred."

"And make him the hero, yes?" Ivan wondered.

"You mean I have to fight that thing alone?" Alfred asked, looking back at the boss.

"Well, we don't really have a choice," Ludwig explained. "Feli and Francis are worn out because they start first. I don't know how much stamina they can sustain after holding back the monster. And Yao and Arthur are trying to heal everyone and help out with additional attacks. Ivan and I won't have much stamina after 3-4 hits, because each of the moves we earned are powerful enough to drain our energy. So that leaves you, Alfred."

"I don't really like having Alfred taking all the credit," Arthur said, shrugging, "but Ludwig has a point."

"Fine," Alfred replied, nodding. "But if I fail, I'm sorry."

"Yep, we'll blame you."

They faced the monster once more, this time with determination.

"We'll defeat that thing and find _«Tokyo»_!" Alfred cried out. Then he unsheathed his weapon and ran towards the boss, with the others close behind.


	6. Floor Five

«Floor Five: We Fight Illfang, part 2»

Once they all stepped toward _«Illfang»_ head on, they took their places as planned. Starting out first were Feliciano and Francis, who swerved back and forth between the slow and powerful blows to land their light attacks.

"Take this!" Feliciano cried out. Then he spun around and stabbed the monster's leg multiple times, causing _«Illfang»_ to cry out in pain. "It stings a lot, doesn't it?"

"Come on, my ugly lady," Francis taunted, jumping up to dodge the swing of _«Illfang»_'s axe. But it wasn't for long that the axe swooped back towards him. He managed to block some of the blow, but just enough to reduce his health. Soon enough, the monster kicked Feliciano, who had been sprinting back and forth and stabbing its legs repeatedly. This also affected Francis as well.

"Guh!" Feliciano and Francis grunted as they landed on the ground. Both of them turned to Ludwig and Ivan.

"_«Switch»_, Ludwig!" Feliciano called out.

"_«Switch»_...Ivan!" Francis hesitated at first, but managed it. He clutched his arm, which glowed red. "Damn it!"

Right away, Ludwig and Ivan took up their weapons and advanced toward the monster.

"You guys alright?" Arthur and Yao asked at the same time. They quickly rushed over to the two and handed them a healing crystal. "Here. Get some health back."

"Where's Alfred?" Francis asked angrily. He sat up and looked behind him, where he saw the young man quietly observing the battle. "Hey, our plan didn't go well!"

Alfred nodded glumly. "Yeah, I know," he answered. "That's why I'm trying to think of something."

"Well, I'm not going to ask for the entire plan, but did you think of something yet?"

"Other than the legs, I think the most open spot is the belly. If that's the one place that _«Illfang»_ keeps on guarding, that should be its weakest spot."

"Francis and I are going back there again, once Ludwig and Ivan are done," Feliciano replied. "So while we're here, you might want to give us something that's helpful, if we want to weaken _«Illfang»_ further."

"Hmm…" Alfred carefully paid attention on the boss, as Ludwig and Ivan dealt their heavy blows. He saw Ivan giving two upward slashes against each leg, while Ludwig ran toward the boss and knocked it over with an upward diagonal swing from his axe, just before _«Illfang»_ was about to land another attack on Ivan. And he knew that by deflecting the attack, it would cause the stamina to decrease by a certain amount, depending on how much it was dealt with.

"But if we need to keep him open, we'll need distractions," he whispered to himself. "That means we need the backup as the bait. And I have to join in as well."

Alfred thought of having Arthur and Yao as the bait. One of them would take a spot towards the centre of the room and launch their attacks from there. He knew their sword skills aren't high enough yet, but they should deal with some kind of damage. Whatever skill they decide to use would be entirely up to them. Once their remaining energy has reached close to 50%, they will switch to Feliciano and Francis. They will land their attacks from either side, while Arthur and Yao would go off to the side to recover a little bit. Ludwig and Ivan wouldn't enter the battle until they're fully recovered, since each block and attack reduces theirs by a huge amount, as well as the amount of time needed for regain their strength.

But if either Feliciano or Francis ends up injured, they need to call Arthur or Yao. The latter group doesn't recover as quick as the former, but because of their role, it should be on par with theirs. And that's where Alfred comes in.

Alfred will land a few powerful attack against the boss, which might be enough to eliminate the first HP bar, leaving _«Illfang»_'s remaining number of HP bars into three. If that's the case, then something should happen.

"Hey, Yao," he called out to Yao.

"Yeah?" Yao glanced at Alfred. He seemed surprised at how calm Alfred was, despite the battle going on.

"What happens if we manage to get take out one of _«Illfang»_'s HP bar? Shouldn't be there be something that would trigger another event?"

"Let's see." Then Yao took out the small booklet, flipped it to the section about Illfang, and studied it for a minute. "Well, if we do get rid of its HP, it will raise the boss' sentinels again."

"So it's like the first time, then?"

"I suppose so."

"Alright." Then Alfred lowered his voice. "Hey, Matt," he whispered. "You there?" He heard a grunt at his right side.

"_Ah, finally,_" Matthew spoke up, standing up to stretch. "_I thought everyone forgot about me! What is it?_"

"Can you do me a favour?"

"_Sure. No one can see me, not even the boss…_"

"I want you to do something for me…"

* * *

"_Are you sure about that?_" Matthew asked, once Alfred was finished.

"Yep," Alfred replied, grinning. "Come on, you're the invisible one here."

"_Fine, but if I get killed, I'll kill you on the other side._"

"Deal." Then he called those who weren't fighting to gather around him. "Guys, I have a plan," he said.

Arthur smirked. "Are you finally joining in the battle?" he asked in a sarcastic tone. "You haven't moved since we fought that monster."

"I'm joining in," Alfred answered.

"What's the plan?" Feliciano asked.

"Okay, let's start with…"

* * *

Standing on the far centre of the room, Yao and Arthur drew out their swords and waited until Ludwig and Ivan call to switch. Once that happens, they will land the first few attacks, while Feliciano and Francis took their positions at either side and Alfred took his position behind Yao and Arthur. Of course, Matthew stood beside Alfred, since Alfred will be the one who will give the cue.

And then, without warning…

"_«Switch»_!" Ludwig and Ivan yelled out at the same time.

"Coming!" Yao and Arthur shouted in reply. Then they sprinted towards _«Illfang»_ and landed their attack.

"_«Rage Spike»_!" Arthur yelled. Rushing towards _«Illfang»_ with his sword pointed up, he plunged the blade just below the knee. Afterwards, he took a few steps back and ran back to the boss. This time, he leapt up and landed a vertical attack as he ran up the monster's arm, creating a huge slash mark along it, which weakened the grip of its weapon a little.

"_«Avalanche»_!" Yao cried out. Holding his sword with two hands, he rushed to _«Illfang»_, did a somersault, spun just once, and landed his sword on _«Illfang»_'s back. This created a long, but deep diagonal cut, once Yao landed back on the ground. "About three-quarters of its HP bar remaining!" he called out, as he ran back to the group.

"Okay, Feli and Francis," Alfred called to the two, "get ready!"

"Right," the two answered from their places.

"Okay," Yao muttered. "_«Switch»_, Francis!"

"Alright!" Francis ran towards the boss, as he quickly drew out his rapier.

Meanwhile, Arthur did the same.

"_«Switch»_, Feli!" he cried out.

"Yes!" Feliciano drew out his sword and joined Francis in the battle. "Second time, you little thing!"

* * *

"_«Shooting Star»_!" Feliciano yelled. Then with one thrust of his rapier, he managed to deal with some damage, since one blow meant many at once.

"Alright," Francis muttered, charging up his weapon. "_«Quadruple Pain»_!" All at once, he stunned the boss. "Go, Feli!"

"Okay! _«Shooting Star»_!" Feliciano repeated. But as he was about to finish his attack, _«Illfang»_ swung its sword and, although Feliciano blocked it with his rapier, it was enough to knock him off his feet.

"Damn it!" Francis yelled. "Switch to Arthur, Feli!"

"_«Switch»_, Arthur!" Feli called out.

"As much as I hate working beside him," Arthur yelled, drawing out his sword, "I guess I have no choice!" Then without a word, he ran off to join with Francis.

Meanwhile, Feliciano didn't move from his spot after being knocked off.

"Feli!" the others cried. But Yao responded first and reached the young man soon after Arthur joined the battle.

"Hey, Feli," Yao said, shaking his shoulders. "Wake up."

Soon enough, Alfred arrived. "Is he okay?" he asked Yao.

"Yes," Yao replied, checking Feliciano's condition. "He still has enough HP left, but he's unconscious. He should be okay, if we leave him on a safe place." Then without waiting for a response from Alfred, he lifted Feliciano up and carried him with both arms, before rushing towards the back.

"Matt," Alfred muttered, still standing in his spot.

"Yeah?" Matthew's voice asked. Alfred guessed he was standing beside him.

"Keep an eye on Feli. I'll still give the cue for you to come in, okay?"

"Okay."

Once he was sure Matthew was gone, Alfred joined his place between Ludwig and Ivan, who were now close to full stamina. He hasn't spoken to either of them yet, but if things go wrong, he hoped that they'll respond right away.

* * *

After managing to get rid of _«Illfang»_'s second HP (through Francis' _«Quadruple Pain»_ and Arthur's _«Sonic Leap»_ to finish the attack), and the usual trigger of the sentinels rising from the floor to attack them, the group finally knew what to do. At the same time, _«Illfang»_ threw away its first weapon, a bone axe, and replaced it with a Talwar sword, which is larger.

Since Feliciano still recovered after trying to block _«Illfang»_'s attack on him, Alfred joined along with Yao as the backup. Ludwig and Ivan were switched into the battle after Francis and Arthur were already close to exhaustion (with _«Illfang»_'s HP already less than 50%).

"Jeez, we're almost there," Arthur said to Alfred, sheathing his sword once more as he and Francis approached them.

"At least we know what to do now," Yao answered. "Each time we take out _«Illfang»_'s HP bar, his sentinels pop up. And as for us, we'll go in a cycle."

"How about the attacks?" Francis asked.

"Well, that's your choice. But once you feel exhausted, you need to switch out so you can recover." Then Yao took out a crystal and gave each one to both Francis and Arthur. "Here, a healing crystal. Just in case."

"Okay, thanks." Francis took it from Yao's hand and kept it in his inventory, while Arthur followed suit.

"Still…" Arthur said, "I wish _«Tokyo»_ is here...He would've defeated this thing."

Yao opened up his menu and checked up on how Ludwig and Ivan were doing. "Alright," he said, "Francis and Arthur...get ready. You know what to do, right?"

"Yep," both of them answered, wielding out their weapons.

"Let's defeat the boss," Francis added. Then he turned to Alfred and narrowed his eyes. "Don't let us down, alright?"

Alfred shook his head. "I won't let anyone down," he replied. "I have a plan anyway."

"You better mean it, then…"

Soon enough, Ludwig and Ivan called Arthur and Francis, respectively, into the battle.

Upon returning, Yao handed Ludwig and Ivan one healing crystal each, adding that both of them are almost out and each of them only gets one.

"I can guess that as we move up," Ludwig answered, using his crystal to increase his HP, "the more the bosses' HP there are." Then he looked at Feliciano, who was still lying unconscious. "Don't die on me just yet…" he muttered to him.

Ivan only nodded. But then, he added, "Unless we know what we're doing, it shouldn't be any different…"

"I guess you're right," Yao agreed, nodding glumly.

But then, they heard a loud cry.

"_«Switch»_, Ludwig!" Francis yelled out.

"Coming!" Ludwig replied. Then taking out his axe once more he ran off.

Without a word, Yao and Ivan rushed toward Francis, who was knocked out, and took him away from the battle. Then Yao handed him a healing crystal, but he stopped.

"Oh, no," he said, looking at Francis' HP, "this can't be good."

"What is it?" Alfred rushed to his side. He had been silent since Francis and Feliciano took their place into battle, as he thought of a plan.

"He dealt more damage compared to Feliciano," Yao explained. "And that's just 80% of the attack _«Illfang»_ made against him."

"If he took 100% of that attack, what happens?"

Yao only gave him a grave expression.

"He's lucky to have endured that," Alfred said. "I hope he wakes up soon…"

"Defeat _«Illfang»_, okay?" Yao asked.

"I know. I made a promise…"

Standing up, he took out his weapon and faced the boss with a determined expression.

"Ludwig, Arthur," he called out, "call me in!"

"Are you crazy?" Ludwig asked, surprised. "You can't do it alone!"

"He's right," Arthur agreed.

"I know what to do," Alfred assured them. "Trust me."

"Fine," Arthur replied back. "We'll kill you if you fail!"

"Go ahead."

"_«Switch»_, Alfred!" Ludwig and Arthur cried out.

Once _«Illfang»_ glared straight at Alfred, he smiled.

"Let's go, Matt," he whispered.

...

"Alright," Alfred muttered. He swerved to another side, as directed by Matthew, and threw two slashes against _«Illfang»_. "_«Vertical Arc»_, here we go." Then he leapt off from the monster's shoulder, as soon as he was finished, and back onto the ground.

"_Watch out!_" Matthew called from behind him.

"Yeah, okay," Alfred whispered. He ducked underneath _«Illfang»_'s swinging of its weapon. But once he was out of the way, he jumped on _«Illfang»_'s right arm and ran up along it. While he ran, he placed his sword behind him to charge. And once he reached the shoulder, he jumped up, did a somersault, and dug his sword deep into the monster's back. As he jumped down to the ground, he held on to his sword, as it created a deep and vertical slash down its back.

"Guys, now!" he yelled. "I don't care what attack. Just go!"

Following Alfred's sudden command, Yao, Arthur, Ludwig and Ivan approached _«Illfang»_ by groups of two on either side. Yao took the first attack by landing his _«Avalanche»_ attack before using _«Sharp Nail»_ as his second attack. Then Ludwig and Ivan each landed two _«Whirlwind»_ attacks, both of them resulting with using up their remaining energy. And finally Arthur dealt further damage with two attacks, _«Sonic Leap»_ and _«Vertical Arc»_.

Once all four of them managed to land their attacks, Alfred charged up his sword behind him from where he stood, a good distance from the boss.

"Matt," he whispered.

He heard Matthew behind him. "_Yeah?_" he asked.

"Let's go with the plan."

"_Okay._"

Without waiting, Alfred ran toward _«Illfang»_, with his sword still charging up. Then jumping up, he drove his sword on _«Illfang»_'s left shoulder and allowed himself to slide down his back. But as soon as his feet touched the ground, he leapt up once more and let his blade run upward through the monster's right shoulder, leaving it with a large v-shaped slash with each end on one shoulder.

"_Charge up,_" Matthew told Alfred.

"Alright," Alfred replied. Then he held his sword across him, with the blade almost touching his shoulder, and turned his body at a small angle. "You know what to do, right?"

"_Yep._"

Once Alfred's sword was finally charged, Alfred ran towards _«Illfang»_ as fast as he could and stabbed him through his back.

"_«Vorpal Strike»_," he muttered under his breath.

He dug deeper, but it was slow.

"Matt," he called in a soft voice.

Then he felt his hands warm up and his grip tighten a little. But at the same time, the wound grew bigger.

"Come on!"

Soon enough, he felt himself sliding through the other side, facing the others once more. And behind him, he saw a large hole through _«Illfang»_'s belly, glowing red before his eyes.

We did it…

Then slowly _«Illfang»_ glowed in red before breaking into small square pieces.

Afterwards, a large banner in huge letters stood before them.

_«Congratulations!»_

It was over. Finally.


	7. Floor Six

«Floor Six: For Now»

Silence.

Alfred woke up, lying facedown on the marble floor. He lifted up his head and found the others lying down ahead of him. Everyone was exhausted; their stamina barely at a minimum. None of the others moved. If they did move, it would be painful.

But still, he had done it.

No, they had done it.

They had defeated the boss.

Grunting quietly in pain, he rolled on his back and struggled to sit up. Once he did, he saw a banner in glowing letters.

_«Congratulations!»_

That was it. Just one word.

"So this is how it's going to be?" Alfred asked himself. "Until he find him, we have to burn ourselves out defeating these monsters. And for what? If we die, we die in real life." Then without a word, he stood up. As he did so, he heard a beep.

He took a swipe to open his menu, only to find a new item.

_«Coat of Midnight»_

Pressing _«Accept»_, he saw something glowing on him. And seconds later, he found himself wearing a black ankle-length coat. It was as if he was already wearing it, even though he knew he wasn't wearing any coat before.

"_It looks nice on you, Al,_" Matt said.

"Well, I wonder if this is what they give to the player whenever they defeat _«Illfang»_," Alfred replied, shrugging to make sure the coat fit him well. "But I have something else that I'm thinking about."

"_Like what?_"

"I don't know...But I don't think I should be on the team at all."

"_What?_" Matthew was surprised at this. "_Why would you think that?_"

"Most of us never played RPG before," Alfred explained. "Only four of us know the mechanics of playing them."

"_But I don't play it _that_ much._"

"Well, at least you know the basics. But the others...it's their first time."

"_What are you saying then?_" Matthew's tone became serious. "_Leave them behind and go off on your own to find _«Tokyo»_?_"

Alfred nodded. "If I stay here longer," he added, "that would just slow our progress down. And who knows what floor _«Tokyo»_'s in right now...or what level he has."

"_No way. I won't let you._"

"Get out of the way, Matt." Alfred tried to pass through, but he felt a light shove from Matt to keep him back.

"_Please don't go. If you're going, then I have to go, too._"

"No, you stay here with them." Then with one swipe, he opened the menu and removed everyone, except Yao and Matt from his party list. "Don't worry, Yao might understand. He won't like it, but at least he has patience. I don't have that."

"_Don't go, Al,_" Matthew pleaded. "_But what if they need your help defeating the boss? How about that?_"

"Then, if I find a way, I'll let Yao know. But he mustn't know about why I left. When time comes, you can tell him what happened and why I left."

Silence hung between them.

"_So you mean it, then?_" Matthew finally asked. Although Alfred may not notice the tears running down Matthew's eyes, he noticed his voice shook with small sobs. "_You'll find him on your own?_"

Alfred nodded. "I'll let you and Yao know, if I find him," he answered. Then he turned away and began walking off. "But for now, I can't be with you guys. I'm sorry." And without waiting for Matthew, he waved a hand behind him.

"See ya later…" was the last thing Matthew heard.

With that, he passed through the door across the room without ever looking back.

And just as Alfred disappeared, the others woke up.

* * *

Yao was the first to wake up. As he sat up, he glanced around the others. Then he stood up.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked.

Groans were heard from the rest as they tried to stand up.

"Wait…" Yao looked around the room once more. Someone was missing. "Alfred?" he asked.

Nothing.

"Hey, guys," he called, "have you seen Alfred?"

"Sorry to break it to you, Yao," Arthur replied with a groan. "But we just woke up."

"And no, I don't think Alfred's here either," Francis added, taking a gaze around. "I can't see him anywhere. Where is he?"

"I don't know," Yao replied. "That's what I'm trying to get to." Then swiping open his menu, he searched around for his party list. Alfred's name wasn't there anymore. _So why is it…?_

"Why is his name still on my list?" he whispered. He paused for a moment and then… "Unless he created a separate party list…" He closed the window showing all of the others' names and found another party list. He selected it, which opened up a window showing his name, as well as Alfred's.

_Why would you do that, Alfred?_ he wondered to himself. _What exactly are you up to?_ Since he was the only person Alfred had added on his own party, he decided to keep it a secret. That is, until Alfred himself would send him a message about what he's been up to.

"What?" Ludwig asked. He opened his player menu and found out that Alfred's name was nowhere to be found. "Why would he leave us here?"

"Whatever it is, it made him go off on his own," Yao suggested. He swiped off his player menu. "And left us here without telling us why."

"That little FUCK!" Arthur yelled in anger. Then he glared across the room, where the passage to the next floor is located. "Thinking he's the hero again! If we see him again, I'll beat him up until he admits he's sorry for what he's done!"

With that, he began stomping off across the hall in anger. The others quietly followed behind him, also unsure of Alfred's sudden decision to leave.

"Why would he go off like that?" Feliciano asked, uncertain. "How would we defeat the bosses without him?"

"He wasn't like this before we came here," Francis agreed. "He seemed less serious until now."

"He was different, indeed," Ivan agreed as well, although he hasn't spoken since the boss fight.

"It must be the fight that changed him," Yao replied. "I know Francis and Feliciano weren't able to see what happened, since both of you were knocked out...But…" He trailed off.

"What is it?" Francis and Feliciano asked at the same time.

"When Alfred fought _«Illfang»_," Yao began in a slow tone, "it was as if he knew what to do. And his speed was not like I've never seen, either. Even if I play an RPG like this, I would last longer fighting the boss. The attacks he made, despite it being his first move in a boss fight, it was enough to deal great damage, too."

"You mean Alfred knew this game before?" Ludwig asked, surprised.

Yao shook his head. "Only _«Tokyo»_ knew of this game before us, so it can't be," he guessed. "But maybe it's just the fact that Alfred plays these games so often that he knew what to do."

"Still, he shouldn't just wander off by himself like that," Arthur replied. He was no longer angry as before, but he still wasn't happy. "Just because he has more experience playing games doesn't mean he'll turn into a selfish asshole towards us."

"Well, he kinda is now," Francis said. Then he released a sigh. "Going off by himself like that, it's pretty selfish of him."

"That's true."

"For now, let's just hope that he's still alive," Yao assured everyone. "If not, then…"

"That's his fault, that fucking asshole," Arthur finished.

As they passed through the passageway that led into the second floor, Matthew quietly followed behind them. He still hasn't forgotten what Alfred had told him, but he could only hope on the promise he made.

_But if he dies before we could ever reach him_ he thought quietly, _then I'll certainly kill him in the next life._

_You hear that, Al?_

_We'll kill you, if you fail…_

* * *

_Sorry again for the amount of swear words. _


	8. Floor Seven

«Floor Seven: Without Alfred/With Matthew»

Two weeks passed by since Alfred decided to leave the group. No one still knew the exact reason on why he left, yet they still hoped to come across him at the upper floors within the game. Although he still wasn't happy about it, Arthur did calm down and moved on, while the others doubt this, believing that the young man wanted to pay Alfred back.

As for Yao, the fact that Alfred added him on a separate party still remain unknown to him. He knew that Alfred has a high level than they are. That is, if Alfred didn't stop reaching the high floors to reach _«Tokyo»_. All he could hope for was that both of them are alive when they finally reach them again. But right now, the best he could do was lead the others, all while studying the game's guide closely and adding tiny bit of notes on the margins.

And Matthew remained the "invisible" player he was, fulfilling his only role to change the outcome of battle while helping the other players at the same time. He knew that they wouldn't notice, but at some point he would have to reveal himself to Yao...unless Yao himself could keep a secret, until Alfred admits to him personally that he, Matthew, exists.

But those two weeks wasn't spent for idling around. Most of the players' levels were now between 15-20, due to completing other missions besides defeating the floor bosses. Not only that, their equipment were also upgraded, thanks to Yao and Arthur's skills. Both of them were now their personal blacksmith, tailor, locksmith and healer (as one carrying healing crystals), respectively. Of course, besides their occupation, they can fight as a backup, in case anyone becomes injured. Most of all, they only wanted to reach Alfred, since they know he won't stop "levelling up" until he reaches _«Tokyo»_. Although Yao feared that while their level are high enough, Alfred's and _«Tokyo»_'s will be even higher, twice as high as theirs.

Deciding to settle in _«Floor 10»_, they took three separate apartments as their temporary home. Since Yao told them about completing quests to buy certain houses, as well as paying a certain amount of Cols, it wasn't even close to a one-room house, with all their money put together. So Francis and Ivan shared one room, Feliciano and Ludwig took another, and finally Arthur and Yao shared the third.

That night, while everyone else was asleep, Yao stayed awake, which Arthur quickly took notice when he rolled to the other side of his bed.

"You're still awake?" he asked him, shielding his eyes from the lamplight across the room.

Yao nodded, while reading the game's guide and flipping between the pages. "Yes, why?" he asked back.

"It's so late. Can't you put it off until tomorrow?"

"Not until I find a way to defeat the boss for this floor, I won't…"

Arthur huffed. "I wish Ivan was your roommate," he said, "instead of me."

"Then you have Francis as a result," Yao replied, grinning

"Nevermind, I take that back." Then without a word, Arthur turned his back and slept.

"I thought so."

* * *

Many more weeks pass and more upgrades the group took, Matthew became more worried about his existence to them. At that point, he finally set the time to talk to Yao alone.

And when that time came, it was while Yao was spending another night going over the guide.

* * *

When Yao decided to take a quick break from reading, he marked the page he left off, set it down on the bedside table, and rubbing his eyes. At that moment, he heard a faint beep in his menu, which he opened.

Opening his menu, he looked for the source, in which he found an unnamed message.

_Hello._

_You may not know me, but I know you. (Sorry if that seems creepy, but it's true.)_

_But let me first introduce myself, okay?_

_I'm «Matthew»._

_I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I have no choice. I have to tell you who I am because I might know exactly why Alfred left._

_You can't see me, because of something when we all "dove" into the game. But I know I was there with everyone...It's just that I became invisible as a result, so that's why._

_Anyway, if you believe me, put your left hand close to the edge of the bed._

It seemed like an odd request from a stranger he didn't know, but Yao did exactly as told. He placed his left hand towards the edge and waited. But then he suddenly felt his hand being enclosed into something warm.

_No, not that..._he thought quickly, trying not to shake his head. He soon realised that it's as if an invisible hand was holding his. And it did feel that way.

"So it's true?" he whispered, hoping that _«Matthew»_ would hear him. "You're real?"

"_Yep, I'm real,_" Matthew answered. Then, although Yao couldn't see him, he sat on the bed, close enough for Yao to whisper to him.

"But how come you're speaking at a normal tone? Shouldn't Arthur wake up upon hearing you?"

"_No. Not unless someone notices me._"

"How about Alfred? He often mutters something under his breath."

"_He's probably talking to me. He didn't want anyone else to know yet._" Then Matthew paused. "_Now you're wondering how I came to know everyone, even sending you a message...even though I don't exist as a physical character._"

"I didn't see your name in the party, only Alfred's."

"_I don't know either. It must be the glitch that I got when we came here. I guess somehow, the system somehow "connected" my account to Alfred's, so he can only his name and mine. If you look at your list, the one with everyone in it, mine would probably be at the end...so it's not just some empty space._"

Yao opened up his menu once more and checked to see if Matthew was right. He saw nothing, but somehow there was something missing. After trying to make some adjustments with the system for his menu, he went back and finally noticed Matthew's name faintly written at the bottom of the list.

"But how can you exist if Alfred isn't here?" he asked Matthew. But he realised something. "Unless you've been quietly following us this whole time, were you?"

"_I was. Where else can I go, other than you guys?_"

"So the battle with «Illfang»...you were there?"

"_Yeah, but I was only with Alfred, so I didn't talk much when you were nearby. But I did keep watch on Feliciano and Francis, while they were recovering. Alfred told me so, while he thought of a plan to defeat the boss._"

"No wonder he knew what to do...I've never seen him fight the way he was against the monster, not even while we levelled up defeating those wild boars. And those moves...they seem quite high-level, too…"

Matthew was silent for a moment. "_You may not know about this,_" he began, "_but sometimes he practises his skills at night. Not all the time, but maybe once or twice in a few days._"

Yao turned away and glanced at Arthur. "No wonder…" he whispered quietly. Then he turned to face Matthew again. "So how exactly did Alfred defeat the boss?" he finally asked.

As if it occurred yesterday, Matthew told him. Word by word, he described the plans Alfred made. Yao didn't dare interrupt him, but listened carefully, hoping to find something that would help him. Until Matthew was finished, he didn't say a single word.

"_So it was Alfred who took out the boss,_" Matthew finished. "_Without you guys, he wouldn't have killed the thing...Why do you think he gave everyone a chance to attack before he dealt the final blow?_"

"Because he wanted to weaken it first, stun a little and finally finish it," Yao slowly replied. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Of course!" he whispered. But then he quickly calmed down, fearing that he might wake Arthur up. "But I recalled from the guide" - he pointed at the book on the bedside table - "that the player who defeats «Illfang» gets a reward. What was it?"

"_Hmmm…_" Matthew pondered. "_I did remember Alfred wearing a black coat. It was long, like it goes down to the ankles, I think._"

"Oh, alright." Yao took up the game guide and flipped it to the pages about «Floor 1», scanning over to the items section. "Let's see...it's called _«Coat of Midnight»_...and wearing it would boost the player's _«Hiding»_ skill."

"_I'm pretty certain that Alfred has that skill; it would come handy to him later._"

For a moment, neither of them talked.

"_When we finally meet Alfred again,_" Yao began, "_what level do you think he's on at the time?_"

"_Well, if he keeps reaching another floor every other day,_" Matthew answered, "_his level would be around 8-10 levels more. That is, if our level is around 80, Alfred's level would be around in the 90s or late 80s._"

"And I suppose _«Tokyo»_'s would be a bit higher than his."

"_Yep. Around early 90s, I guess._"

Another silence hung between them.

"_Well, I think you should get some sleep,_" Matthew said. Then he stood up, although Yao couldn't see him. "_It's already late. You can't lead everyone, if you're tired._"

"Don't you sleep, too?" Yao wondered, lying down.

"_Of course. Just because I'm invisible doesn't mean I can't get sleep. I'm just like you and everyone else...except I'm transparent and sleep on the desk._" Then, as he sat down on the desk, which is right beside Yao's bed, Matthew paused for a second. "_As for me, don't tell the others about me yet...especially with Arthur. I know he hasn't calmed down...even if he tries to hide it._"

Yao nodded. "I thought so, too," he agreed. "Well, goodnight."

"_Goodnight to you, too,_" Matthew replied back. Then, putting his head on his arms on the desk, he fell asleep within seconds.


	9. Floor Eight

«Floor Eight: An Event Dungeon Involving St. Nick, pt. 1»

Many more months pass over Aincrad and many more deaths increased the deceased toll each passing day. Summer became autumn and autumn became winter. For some players, the entire universe of the game has become the "Second Earth", living as much as they could until someone...anyone...will finally lift the burden that each player had been bearing since the first day.

For Yao's group, however, the fact that their duration within the game now reached its sixth month didn't prevent them in worrying whether Alfred is still alive. As much as Arthur still held spite against the young man, his anger had dwindled down...doing his best as he could to forget him for the being by "grinding up his level" along with the others, who were just as occupied as he was. But after a news from Yao, three days before, no one really knew what was going on in his mind.

It was after reaching _«Floor 35»_ that Yao finally decided to tell the others of Matthew, who had been quietly following them ever since.

"Hey, everyone," he began. "Can we set up camp here for the night?"

Ivan grinned and held up a small coin purse with one hand. "I think we can spend a night in a large room…" he answered, "so you can tell us what it is you want to bring up."

And so after settling down, all of them sat down in a circle on the floor.

"So…" Francis began, "what is it you want to tell us?"

Yao took a deep breath. "Remember back then...at the 1st floor," he asked slowly, "when we fought the boss...and Alfred was acting strangely?" Then upon uttering Alfred's name, he glanced up at Arthur, who was sitting across him. The others, except him, followed suit.

Arthur shook his head. "It's fine," he replied in a soft tone. "I've pretty much had it with Alfred. All I wanted is for him to be alive."

"Okay," Yao answered back, nodding. "I just thought...that you would react with rage again, every time one of us says his name."

"Just get on it. What do you want to tell us?"

"When Alfred defeated the boss, there was someone else who was fighting alongside him...besides us. That person helped him increase his attacks in a way that he would've been at level 30...more or less the average level reached by a beta player. He's with us right now…"

Feliciano glanced around the room. "But he's not here," he said, turning to Yao. "Are you sure he's some invisible player?"

"It's complicated to explain exactly what he is," Yao explained, shrugging. "But he believed that when he dove into the game, the system might have mistaken him for Alfred...and somehow mixed his character stats up. Since the game doesn't always allow players to look exactly the same, as it was with him, it caused his player image to glitch and make him invisible as a result."

"And since he's invisible...he couldn't do anything normal players can, right?" Ludwig asked. "He's just a background character, almost like an NPC."

"While he can't fight," Francis countered, "I don't think he's an NPC. Not when he helped out Alfred defeat that thing. He moves around Aincrad like us, so he's still a playable character. That's how it should be, correct?"

Yao nodded. "He's half and half for both," he replied. "So I'll introduce him to you guys...Matthew, you know who the others are."

Silence, but to sense his presence to them, Matthew walked each player by and lightly tapped them on their left shoulder. Once they felt the light tap, they turned around to see that there was no one else but the six of them. Afterwards, he stopped behind Matthew and leaned down behind him.

"I gave them a light tap on their shoulder," he whispered to him. "Funny that they thought someone else is really with them...but at least now they know."

"So now you know why?" Yao asked them.

Arthur nodded. "Yeah," he replied. "But...why didn't you tell us this whole time?"

"Because if I tell all of you right away, you'd be terrified and think that Alfred cheated his way into the game," Yao explained.

"And you don't want to happen, yes?" Ivan asked, his expression serious.

"Still...why have you been keeping it a secret from us?" Francis added. "I thought we're supposed to let each other know what's going on."

"Look, I'm sorry that I should've told you in the first place," Yao explained, laying his hands out before them. "But I have no choice...Matthew wanted Alfred to stay with us, but Alfred himself told him that he won't allow anyone of us to find him at the upper floors."

"That idiot wanted to protect us…" Arthur agreed. "He'd rather risk his life, than let one of us die. What a selfish hero, he is."

"_He kinda is, doesn't he?_" Matthew joined in.

Suddenly, everyone let out a soft gasp. Yao and Ivan were the only ones who were startled.

"You...you can talk?" Feliciano asked, searching around for an "unfamiliar face".

"_Of course,_" Matthew answered. "_And don't worry,_" he quickly added, "_Yao already knew. But I'm not sure about Ivan. I didn't see him react when I tapped him on his shoulder._"

"It might take some time for me to get used to this," Francis muttered, as he shook his head. "Talking to an invisible ghost…"

"_It'll be fine. Think of my voice as that tiny little voice in your head._"

"That's not really helping…"

"Anyway," Yao began, taking out the guide from his inventory, "so I've picked up from rumours on our way here about a dungeon coming up in a few days." He flipped through the pages until he stopped and showed them what he was referring to.

With tiny a font from the book, everyone else leaned over to read the words and quickly leaned back.

"So...it's St. Nick?" Arthur asked. "He looks different here…"

"More or less he's a mix of the Krampus," Ludwig agreed with a faint smile.

"What's that?" Francis wondered. "Is it that ugly looking monster that I see stalking behind St. Nick?"

"That's about it. He's the Grinch, that green monster Alfred sometimes talk about."

"Back to the topic," Yao interrupted, before everyone else became lost with tangents. "So it's rumoured that if it's defeated, it will drop a very rare item." He paused and scanned the guide for a moment. "Something called the _«Divine Stone of Returning Soul»_."

""Returning Soul"?" Feliciano repeated, with eyes widened. "You mean it's a revival item?"

"It should be, right?" Arthur asked. "An item that rare to revive a dead soul to life is enough reason anyone will get their hands on."

"Yes," Yao replied. "But there's a catch...We have to find it under a certain fir tree within this floor. Besides that, we have to find him ourselves. I don't think it was in the beta version, as it was with most of the game's guides."

"Hopefully, once we defeat that thing, we'll be able to update our guide," Francis agreed. Then he turned to Ivan, who haven't spoken since Matthew's introduction. "And you haven't said anything at all since...anything to say about what we're planning to do?"

Ivan shook his head. "I just want to meet Grandpa Frost…" he sighed, "and kill him afterwards."

"You're so scary, you know that?"

"Not really." Then Ivan grinned. "Just wait until we face him…I've been working on a special skill for a while..."

"What kind of move is it?" Ludwig wondered. "Would it be enough to KO the boss?"

"I won't tell you."

Without a word, Ludwig turned to Yao. "So when are we leaving?" he asked.

"Hmm…I think we should set out before noon," Yao replied. He looked at the others. "What do you think?"

It was a deal, then.

* * *

As they set out into the woods just outside the town, they quietly prepared themselves should they find the certain fir tree. But for some, they couldn't help feeling uncertain.

"Hey, Yao," Francis whispered to him. "I've been wondering about last night. You didn't tell us if St. Nick wields some kind of a weapon...He should have one, right?"

Yao stopped in his tracks. "Now that you brought that up," he said, swiping open his menu and reading the guide again, "he's no different from the other bosses we've faced so far." He paused for a moment and decided to send a copy of the page concerned. "Okay, I've sent everyone a copy of the page. It took a bit of tweaking, but I hope everyone gets a sense as to what monster we're going to face here."

"He wields a large battle axe, huh?" Arthur read out. "With the six of us, depending on how powerful he actually is, I think we can take on him…"

"I hope you're right with that," Ludwig agreed, nodding. "But with four HP bars...and along with how much damage each attack he does."

"We'll be ready when we find him," Feliciano added. Then he turned around and faced the dark forest before them. "Let's go!"

As they stepped inside the forest, snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

* * *

Hours passed by and the "certain fir tree" was still nowhere to be found. Francis began to notice this.

"Uh, Yao," he called, "are you sure it's in here? That tree?"

"It should be," Yao replied. He stopped in tracks. "It should be something that looks different from the rest…"

"But they all look the same," Arthur argued. "Sorry about sounding rude, but it's been a while now. We've been here for almost two hours…" He plopped down on the snowy ground and began checking his equipment. "Can't we take a break for a little bit?"

"I'm tired, too," Feliciano agreed, following Arthur and sat down beside him.

Yao sighed. It was somewhat true, that they been walking around without stopping. "Okay, fine," he complied. "But 15 minutes of break...It would be the time to check everything, eat a snack or sleep, but after it's up, we should be ready. Are we good with that?"

Everyone nodded, except Yao, who quietly walked off and sat down a few paces from the others.

* * *

"So let's have a bet," Arthur began, "on what level Alfred is on right now. I'd say about 52."

Francis shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "Around 66...that's my bet."

"Well, if I include the side quests," Ludwig guessed, "I think he should be on level 70."

"Maybe he's on 64," Feliciano wondered, nodding. "And then around 70 when we reach him."

"But if he didn't do any side quests," Ivan countered, "his level shouldn't be any different than ours...more or less, he would be around level 40 and up."

Ludwig glanced at Ivan with surprise. "That seems a bit cruel, don't you think?" he asked.

The other shook his head. "I could be right, though," he answered.

"But I don't think Alfred would confront _«Tokyo»_ with a level that low," Arthur said, agreeing with Ludwig a little. "I know we're missing two people from this death game, with one running off to find someone more powerful than all of us here...but Alfred might end up dying."

"Even if he has better equipment?" Feliciano asked. "He would have a higher advantage…"

"Not without a high HP or EXP, he wouldn't survive the upper floors," Ivan explained, nearly interrupting Feliciano. "If you can't fight as well, but has the best armour or weapon around, you're helpless." He looked up at the sky. "Everyone here, including the other two, knows that...Aincrad is just the same the outside world during wartime."

* * *

_Note: it took them seven months to get to where they are for this chapter. So yeah, they had quite a time skip._


	10. Floor Nine

«Floor Nine: Let's Find St. Nick, pt. 2»

"Okay, everyone, break is over," Yao called, standing up. Since he and the others decided to rest for a little, he drew out some strategies on taking down the boss, which seems somewhat advanced for their level (unless Ivan is almost on par with it).

As they went deeper into the woods, Arthur still wondered about the fir tree, in which they had been searching all morning.

"So...Yao," he called out to him, "did you find a way to find that tree? We should be close by now, right?"

Yao pulled his player menu for a minute, as he walked. "Yeah, we're close," he replied. "It should be a big tree, too...That's where we'll find him."

Just then, Ivan spoke up. "It's there!" he blurted out, pointing at something ahead of them.

And there it was, the great fir tree.

"Finally…" Francis whispered with relief. "And I thought we're going to get lost here."

"Let's go!" Feliciano said with excitement. Then rushing past Yao, he ran towards the huge tree. Soon enough the others began to catch up to him.

* * *

"It sure is a big tree…" Ivan remarked, staring up at it.

"Yeah…" Arthur agreed.

"He should be here by now," Yao said, leading the way towards it.

Suddenly, they heard a groan coming from underneath the thick trunk, followed by a shadowy figure coming out from underneath. It resembled St. Nick, except uglier and monstrous-looking. The red costume associated with the figure was torn in certain places, especially with the shoulders down to the elbows. Its whitish eyes gave off a dead glare as each eye stared off in opposite directions, while its yellow-white hair and beard were rather spiky. Overall, it's a nightmarish version of the holiday figure, noted by the large battle axe it wields.

As St. Nick glanced down at them, four HP bars faded into view beside it. Above was its name: _«Nicholas the Renegade»_. (In short, it's _«St. Nick»_.)

"Renegade, huh?" Francis wondered aloud. "No wonder...he looks like he drank some kind of energy drink way too much."

"Any plans, Yao?" Ludwig asked out loud. But before Yao could answer, _«St. Nick»_ began the battle by swinging its axe down towards them, knocking them from their places.

"Francis! Feli!" Yao called out, quickly sitting up. "Try to land some blows to buy us some time, okay?"

Both of them took out their rapiers and rushed toward the monster, blocking and parrying as much as they could.

As the rest stood up, Yao began to quickly lay out a plan. It won't be enough to bring down _«St. Nick»_, but more or less reduce its HP by one full bar.

"This time, Arthur and I will join in," he said to Ivan and Ludwig, who nodded. Then he took a glance toward the battle, as Feliciano and Francis dodged the attacks, and back. "You two" - referring to Ludwig and Ivan - "will join with them afterwards. I'll give the signal. Afterwards, we'll come along, too."

"That would be enough to bring him down?" Ivan asked, feeling a bit uncertain. "I don't think it'll be…"

Yao shook his head. "I know, I know," he replied quickly. "And I get that he's a bit too advanced for us right now...but we need to level up quickly." He paused for a moment. "Besides, Matthew is with us anyway...he's our only advantage, right?"

Although they already knew about Matthew's invisibility, they could only hope what Yao said was true.

As for Matthew, he wished that Alfred was with them right now. Even if they can defeat _«St. Nick»_, it won't be enough to prevent them from being killed in battle.

_Alfred...where are you?_ he thought, gazing behind him and around the forest. _I really wish you're here…_

* * *

Meanwhile, Ivan and Ludwig joined the fight alongside Feliciano and Francis, whose health were already close to 25%. Before that, Arthur and Yao threw one healing crystal to the latter two to heal up shortly before _«St. Nick»_ gave a counterattack, dealing great damage to Arthur.

"Arthur!" Ludwig cried out, as he saw him being knocked off. He leapt up in the air to attack, only to have his attack blocked and get knocked away as well, accidentally dropping his axe. His health bar depleted by half.

"Ludwig, not you, too!" Francis yelled, as he blocked the attack before rushing towards him. "You alright?"

"I'm fine, but it was some damage he made…" Ludwig stood up. Then he walked over to his axe and picked it up, pointing it towards the monster. "Come on, we're halfway through one HP bar…"

"Right with you."

Despite Ivan's new ability _«Horizontal Attack»_ dealing some damage, it barely reduced the _«St. Nick»_'s HP bar. This didn't please Ivan at all.

"Too tough," Ivan sighed with disappointment, before shifting his attacks to _«Sonic Leap»_.

"Yao, how are you holding up there?" Arthur called out to him, who blocked another attack and countered back.

Yao rolled his eyes. "You do know we're almost out of healing crystals, right?" he answered back. "If this guy attacks all of us again, we're done for."

"Well, Alfred's not here...and I don't expect him to show up here either."

"How about Matthew?" Feliciano joined the conversation, landing slashes one after another. "Is he even helping us out?"

"Well, he's been pointing to some weak spots since we started fighting," Yao replied. "But I think the boss is too fast, so he's trying his best...despite being invisible to all of us."

However, just as they land another attack, _«St. Nick»_ suddenly raised its axe and swept everyone off their feet, landing them quite a distance from it. As for how much damage they took from the counterattack, each person's HP bar is dangerously close to zero. At this point, everyone's viewpoint was covered in faint red, which meant their health was critically low. Feliciano, Matthew and Arthur were knocked out, while Francis and Ivan were paralysed, leaving Yao and Ludwig to stand up on their own...just barely.

"Damn it," Ludwig muttered, struggling to stay in balance. He stabbed his axe on the ground to support himself, yet he stumbled down to his knees. "I don't think we'll be able to defeat this. It's just too advanced for us…"

"Yeah, I know that," Yao agreed, dropping down on his knees after failing to balance himself. "No wonder there's a reason not everyone can defeat this...and it's an event-based boss, too."

"Not even Matthew can help us, huh?"

"Nope...he's the weakest out of everyone, because of his invisibility and lack of ability to fight with us. But still…"

"He's alive."

"Yes."

Seeing _«St. Nick»_ approaching them, they both stared up at it, looking into the monster's crooked and dead eyes. They saw it raising its axe one last time to deal them the final blow.

"Well, I guess that's it for us," Ludwig sighed in defeat.

"Yeah, it's over," Yao replied, nodding.

They slowly closed their eyes and waited for their death.

_It really is over...We're sorry, Alfred and _«Tokyo»_...We let you down._

However, none of them died.

* * *

Just then, they heard _«St. Nick»_ being knocked off from them. Taken aback by this sudden turn of events, Ludwig and Yao quickly opened their eyes and saw a tall dark figure standing between them and the monster, their backs turned against them as it began rushing towards the monster. Both couldn't see who it was as the figure quickly landed very fast slashes and stabs on _«St. Nick»_, and since both their health are dangerously low and their body badly damaged, they fainted from exhaustion. Along with the others, they hoped whoever is fighting is someone they knew.

Alfred or_ «Tokyo»_...it doesn't matter.

* * *

"Hey...hey!"

They all heard a voice, followed by a light thump on their chest, like a small item thrown on them.

"Come on, wake up!"

Then they heard someone walking about on the snow, passing each person by as they told them to wake up. A minute later, the voice spoke up again.

"Oh, finally...one of you is awake!"

And it was Francis, who slowly sat up on the ground, clutching his head with one hand. He couldn't stand hearing the voice, which sounded very familiar, while he gained his consciousness and opened his eyes.

"Can't you just shut up?" he asked, yet his voice was a little slurred. "You're probably the only person here who's talking…"

"Francis, is that you?"

"Wait...no, that can't be." Francis looked around for the source and blinked his eyes a few more times, until his vision was clear. "Is that you…?" And standing beside him was someone he recognised quickly.

"Alfred?"

There was no mistaking that blond hair, with that stupid cowlick strand, and those rectangular spectacles. Other than the brown jacket with a fur trimmed collar, dark trousers, plain white tee, black boots and the red-blade longsword, he's very familiar. It's definitely Alfred.

Soon enough, Francis slid over to Feliciano and Arthur and shook them.

"Hey, wake up, you two!" he called them. "Alfred's here. He's with us right now!"

"Unh, go away!" Arthur yelled back, annoyed. He shoved Francis' hand away. "Everyone's probably dead…and we're in heaven...it won't be long until we meet the guy up there in heaven."

"But Arthur, he's here! Just open your eyes and you'll get what I mean."

While Feliciano still wasn't waking up, Arthur did exactly as he was told. He stood up, followed the line of sight Francis was pointing to, and stared up at Alfred, who grinned at him.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked.

At that point, Yao, Ludwig and Ivan were already awake.

"You see us passed out around you," Arthur began. His voice rising with anger. "And the first thing you say to me is _how I'm doing_?"

Alfred shrugged. "Well, what else do you want me to say?" he asked back. "You're not dead, thank God?"

Without warning, Arthur pounced on Alfred and grabbed him by the collar. Yao and Ludwig stood up at this sudden reaction.

"Why are you even here?" he roared. "You could've let us die instead!"

"Arthur…" Yao tried to stop Arthur, but Ludwig held him back.

"Stay out of this," he said, shaking his head.

"But…"

"Leave this to Arthur. I know you want him to calm down, but he's been holding that anger for months. He needs Alfred to know we've been worried about him, just as much as we are."

"Fine, I'll go wake Feliciano and Matthew up," Yao muttered in frustration, walking past Ludwig. "But if Arthur starts beating Alfred into a pulp, stop him and I don't care if he has to punch you, too."

"I will," Ludwig replied, turning around and nodding. Then he gazed at Ivan, who stayed where he was and watched Alfred and Arthur punching each other.

Meanwhile, Arthur took another punch from Alfred. He wondered if getting punched in the face or anywhere on his body would cost him a small amount of HP. Yet, if he tried to punch Alfred, the young man's health bar barely depleted. Out of anger, he began to unsheathe his sword. At that point, he has to take Alfred out. Nearby, Ludwig noticed this and began to slowly reach for his axe as quietly as he could.

"I'll kill you!" he shouted, branding his sword towards Alfred, who also did the same. "I swear I'll kill you here right now!"

"If you do that, I won't tell you where _«Tokyo»_ is," Alfred answered. "And this time, I know where he is."

"I don't care about that anymore! You left us without telling us why you did it. Many of us thought you're already dead, before you could even find Japan!"

"I know it's selfish of me to leave out on you guys, but if we're going to find him quicker, we have to split up."

"You're damn right it's selfish of you! Even you would know Matthew hasn't talked much since you left him. And for this long to finally tell us that he exists here in this world, you wouldn't have any idea how much he had to go through!" Then he raised his sword and pointed it where Alfred's heart is. "And that's why I'm going to make sure that Matthew won't be sad anymore...once you're gone, I'll feel the same way!"

Before Alfred could say anything, Arthur rushed towards him. He ran as fast as he could, as he raised his sword high while letting out a cry of anger.

"It's over, Alfred!" he cried out.

But as he swung the blade down on Alfred, he saw another blade blocking his attack, before parrying it away and knocking Arthur down on the ground.

"I'm sorry, Arthur," Ludwig said, pointing the blade of his axe against Arthur's throat, as the latter tried to get up. "Yao told me that if you're going to hurt him, I have to stop you."

"Get out of my way!" Arthur spat. "This is between me and Alfred alone!"

But Ludwig stood his ground. "You shouldn't let your anger get into your head like this," he added. "I know...and I get that. Don't think that _you_ and Matthew the only ones who should be mad at Alfred for what he did. Yao, Francis, Feli, Ivan - though he might not show it - and I are angry, too."

"So what? I want him dead!"

"That's not going to cut it," Alfred replied, dropping his sword to prove his point. "Even if you kill me, it won't get us close to what we're here for. And that's saving our friend from dying in real life, while we try not to die along the way." Then he glanced at Yao and the others, who were already back on their feet.

"So...all I want from you guys is accept my apology. In return, I'll help you get through the higher floors. Santa Claus is nothing compared to the bosses upstairs...You'll die the moment the boss attacks you."

A very long silence came over them, as everyone except Alfred decided if he should return to the party. It's not that they wanted him back, but they need him to get to the floors above where they are now. If what Alfred had told them is true, then he's the only chance of getting to _«Tokyo»_.

"Okay, you can join with us again," Francis began. "And we forgive you…"

"But if you're going to leave us again," Yao continued, "we have no choice but to ban you. You've already betrayed our trust once when you left."

"And we don't give a damn if you save everyone here either," Arthur added. "We don't care if you end up dying here, too."

"We're only letting you in again, because we need your help," Ludwig added further. "It's never because we want you back…"

Feliciano and Matthew nodded, while Ivan merely smiled.

"That's a promise, then," Alfred finally replied, nodding. "And by the way…_«Tokyo»_'s name is actually _«Kiku»_…"


	11. Floor Ten

«Floor Ten: Japan's Human Name is Kiku»

As the group returned back to the inn, despite coming back late, no one said anything. Not even Alfred, who felt somewhat detached from the others after being gone for so long. He couldn't help feeling upset, mostly because of what he was wearing. Nearly all the equipment were all custom made and only eight or so rare drops from the side quests he had been taking while away. Even his spectacles isn't just a simple pair anymore.

Once they settled in the large room, with a little Col paid for one more night, they removed their weapons and placed them in one corner of the room, only a few steps from the entrance. Then they sat down in a circle, still silent over what happened a few hours ago. Taking a deep breath, Yao began the usual "world" meeting, with Matthew sitting behind Alfred.

"So…" he began, "Alfred's back in the team. Quite unexpected for you to come back into the team, but still...we're just glad that you're here again." He paused and took a glance at him. "And most of all you're still alive."

Alfred nodded without a word. "Yeah, thanks," he replied. Then he tried to look at Arthur, who was sitting between Francis and Ivan, but the young man refused to gaze back at him and pretended he didn't exist.

"Back there in the forest," Francis said, "you told us that Japan's name is Kiku. How did you know that's his name?"

Alfred grinned. "It's because I met him up there in the higher floors in person," he answered without hesitation. "And I dueled him...except I lost."

Everyone except Arthur widened their eyes and let out a surprised gasp. Finally having enough of Alfred, Arthur quietly stood up and walked out of the room without a word.

"What's with him?" Alfred asked, jumping a little after Arthur slammed the door. "Did I say something wrong?"

Ludwig shook his head. "He's probably still upset about you coming back here," he suggested. "I suppose you remembered what he told you earlier."

"I still do, okay?" Alfred argued back, rather annoyed that Ludwig was the one who answered. Even he felt a little grudge against him after he dared intervene his dispute with Arthur.

"Let's...let's just have Alfred tell us what happened with Kiku, alright?" Feliciano joined in, fearing that everyone would argue if it continued. "At least he knew Kiku's still alive…"

"Okay," Francis agreed. "Tell us, Alfred."

Alfred took a deep breath. "Okay, then," he began.

"I was probably wandering around the 49th floor, just trying to find a side quest to do. I was bored, and I need something else to do rather than grinding 5 levels before heading off to the boss in the 74th floor. Then I kept hearing these rumours about some guy in a samurai costume or at least that was what he was wearing. Nearly everything he has, including his samurai sword, were rare drops...as in enough Cols for two houses within Aincrad. As for his sword skill, he's pretty fast, but he doesn't attack hard. He usually retaliates after a few blocks and counterattack if the attack misses him. But what's odd is that he never draws his weapon, although the other person might already have drawn theirs. It's like he waits for the person to do the first attack. So after asking on where this guy is, I went to challenge the person. And it turns out it's Japan."

"Wait, hold on there," Yao interrupted. "I heard a little bit about some guy in a samurai outfit from the advanced players, when I was wandering around in the 1st floor. You know, when we all first logged in here. So that was Japan, huh?"

"Yep, that's him," Alfred replied, nodding. "But while I recognised him, he didn't really recognise me at first."

"How come? He knows you very well in the real world," Ludwig wondered. "He couldn't just forget…"

"Well, maybe we're just different here," Alfred guessed. "I mean, we wouldn't normally wear our outfits out there now, would we? Our clothes are like our armour anyway. Either it's heavy or light, it's our protection."

"So what happened next?" Francis asked. "Did you duel Kiku?"

"Sort of. He asked me if I'm the next person he's going to duel and warned me that the fight would be over within a minute. I only told him that I'm Alfred. He wasn't convinced. But I proved him wrong that the fight would last for a minute, and with me getting the tip of the blade against my throat. It went longer than expected.

"Of course, Kiku's weapon wasn't drawn by the time the countdown reached zero. Without thinking of a plan, I just went ahead and attacked him. He dodged out of the way and tried to land a counterattack on me, but I dodged that, too. I may be fast, but Kiku...he's just really quick. Neither of us have shields or any kind of armour to lighten the damage, but it would be helpless because we didn't have any scratches yet. We're just trying to land attacks on one another and dodging as fast as we could. And if even we're about to land an open spot, it's blocked and parried off. Had this been real life, we probably would've destroyed a city and still no damage done to one another."

"You two must've gotten some attention," Ivan finally spoke for the first time, quite eager to find out the outcome of the duel. "And for two players who are quite good at playing video games, I'm not surprised why it went longer…"

"It did get a lot of attention," Alfred answered. "Normally for a typical fight that Kiku gets almost every day, it's a small crowd. But this fight, it had a large audience alright. Some even thought of making bets to see who would win. A small amount of Cols went to the newcomer, which is me. They all know that Kiku would win...And he did win.

"When I was about to finally land an attack on him, I thought he would stay where he was, but he took a feint and moved aside. I haven't had time to react, but I turned around, tried to think of another plan quickly, and found myself at a spot. He was already pointing his sword at my throat, which ends the five-minute fight.

"Then he said to me, once the crowd was gone, that I was different from those he had dueled so far. He thought I was a few levels more than he was, since my skills were quite impressive to him. I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, so I had to ask what level he really was. His level at the time was already around 90. Mine right now is 87."

"That's really impressive," Francis agreed, stunned at the numbers. "Right now, mine is just 56. It's quite low, compared to yours."

"I think mine is already 57 after the fight," Feliciano added.

"It's not really easy as you go up the floors," Alfred explained. "And the crystals, they start becoming useless in the higher floors. So my advice would be to level up as much as you can along the way. Side missions would help a lot and maybe get you a rare drop." Then he glanced at Yao. "As for why I'm here, Kiku sent me to find you guys. He told me that he would need some help about defeating the boss in the 75th floor."

Yao shook his head. "Even if you're with us," he finally said, "it wouldn't help us at all. You're already at a very high level. And most of us aren't even close to 60. I'm only at level 56, like Francis. Arthur is at level 59 and almost at 60, while Matthew is at 54, the lowest of the team. And Ludwig is at 58. Who knows what level Ivan is right now, since he refused to tell us ever since you left."

"I'm at level 62," Ivan answered, grinning happily. "I'm not far from Alfred's at all."

"See?" Yao asked Alfred. "Out of all the players here, before you came, Ivan is the most advanced. I don't know what kind of skills he has as a swordsman, but he does make a lot of damage to the enemies." He shook his head once more. "I'm sorry, Alfred, but unless you really are going to help us out, you're the only one who can help Kiku up there."

"Then I'll help you out when I can," Alfred said, after thinking for a minute. "I won't do all the work. More likely I'll be a support for everyone, since I knew the strengths and weakness of a boss already. If you still have the guide, I'll tell you what those are so you can update it."

"_Are you sure that's a good idea, being a support?_" Matthew whispered to Alfred. He had been listening since the meeting began, but hasn't spoken to Alfred for a while. "_I know that you're ahead than I am, but still…_"

"It'll be fine, Matt," Alfred replied back. "I want you to improve your stats, too."

"Matthew's got a point," Yao agreed. "You have the lowest health of everyone, despite having the greatest advantage of being invisible. We need to you to be alive as much as possible, too."

"_Okay, I'll do my best,_" Matthew promised. And although he was a transparent player, Yao, Alfred and the rest knew he was smiling. Arthur was still outside.

"However, since you've already met Kiku, did you add him as one in our party by any chance?" Yao asked Alfred, who shook his head glumly.

"I tried," he answered. "But he doesn't trust me yet, and even if I wanted to, he hasn't met all of you in person. He did say to meet him at the 75th floor, where he will wait for us. And I'm sure he keeps his word."

"Alright, so I guess for now, all we need to do is for us to level up as soon as possible," Francis said, standing up. "Hopefully we could get something more decent than the ones we have so far…"

Alfred blinked in surprise at this. "But I thought Yao can do those," he answered. "Wasn't that one of skills?"

"I still have it," Yao explained, opening his player menu. "But it's just that...we've been so busy at trying to find a way to get to the upper floors, that I didn't have time to work on it." He gazed at Alfred with a tired expression. "I tried to get Arthur to do something, but he hasn't talked much to us until today. I'm just afraid he would throw his anger at us for no reason at all." Without waiting for a response, he swiped his player menu away and stood up.

"I'm going to ask the owner if we could get another room for us," he said, walking towards the door. But before he left, he turned to Alfred again. "You should talk to Arthur alone and convince that you were sorry you left him that day…" And with that, he closed the door.

* * *

"_Are you okay with that, Al?_" Matthew asked, worried. "_Arthur would probably attack you as soon as he sees you anywhere near him. And although players can't attack one another in towns, I'm worried he would do it anyway, if that anger gets into him. I don't want him to become an "orange" player._"

"Well, what do you want me to do, talk him out of it by telling him I'm sorry for what I did?" Alfred asked, getting frustrated by what Matthew had told him. "He's not exactly someone who can be convinced that easily and you know that. Francis knows it, too."

"You're going to have to do it, no matter what," Francis replied. "I was upset about you leaving us like that, but at least I'm a little more forgiving." He looked down and stayed silent for a minute. "The only reason I forgive you is because you saved us from getting killed...and I thank you for that."

"_Yeah, thanks a lot for that, Al,_" Matthew agreed. "_If you didn't show up in time, we would've been dead...and we didn't get a chance to see Kiku again. Most of us would've broken that promise we all made on the first day._"

Alfred didn't say anything for a long time, which also made Francis and Matthew worried a little. He simply couldn't imagine being around Arthur after being gone for so long. Worse is the fact of talking to him. He knew he would never forgive him, but if that's the case, he only wanted Arthur to forget his anger and let him join the team again. If Arthur decides to beat into a pulp outside the town, Alfred definitely wouldn't mind. He knew he deserved it.

"_Hey...are you okay?_" He heard Matthew's quiet voice beside him. "_You haven't said anything a while...are you going to talk to Arthur?_"

Alfred nodded. "Yeah," he answered, standing up. "If he isn't nearby, he might be outside the town." But then Matthew stood up. "And I'm dealing with this alone…"

Defeated, Matthew quietly sat down and watched him exit the room.

"Come on," Francis spoke up after a while, as he stood up. "Let's get some rest."

"_Okay,_" Matthew replied, nodding.

* * *

As Alfred strode the dimly lit street, he couldn't help wondering about what Arthur had told him earlier that day...or at least once everyone was awake. He saw nothing but wrath in Arthur's eyes when he looked directly at him. It wasn't the first time he had seen him angry, but to the point that he would go far as to killing him within the game and in reality soon afterwards, that was not Arthur anymore. Even if he tried to forgive him and denying it, Alfred knew that.

But this time, he doesn't know what Arthur will say to him. Saying sorry won't cut it, but dropping on his knees and begging won't help either. As for mentioning Kiku, he thought about that, too. He and Kiku are just as close as when he, Alfred, is with him as a friend. And Ludwig and Feliciano are his friends, too. Kiku may not get along with Yao at times, but they're still family; he, Arthur, Francis and Matthew are like family, too. He may not know about Matthew just yet, but they get along as well. Everyone doesn't know what Ivan was thinking and whether Kiku trusts him or not, but because he was the only one in the group (prior to Alfred's sudden arrival) with the highest level. Still, the others couldn't survive without Ivan, despite Alfred being gone for months.

After wandering around the town and with Arthur still nowhere to be found, Alfred decided to go outside the town. Yet it wasn't long after walking past the entrance that he saw him sitting down and leaning back on the wall. He was still awake, but seems to stare off at a distance.

But when Alfred a took a step towards him, Arthur quickly turned his gaze directly at him. At first he didn't recognise the outline of the stranger approaching him, but there was no mistaking that stupid strand of blonde hair sticking out from the right.

"Hey," Alfred began, taking another step.

Arthur turned away from him in anger. "I thought you were Francis for a moment," he muttered. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to say I'm sorry." Once close enough, Alfred sat down. But in return, Arthur stood up and walked a few steps forward.

"Sorry isn't enough for what you did," he cut him off. He crossed his arms. "You had us worried sick on whether you're still alive or not! And everyday it's always like that...It's not just me who starts feeling occupied, the others are also! Even Francis and Matt...they couldn't help asking themselves the same thing. Yao doesn't want to show any signs of concern while trying to get us together and focus on what we're supposed to, but I could tell he's just as upset." Then he faced him. "So don't you dare tell me that we risked our lives to get to here, only for you to show up out of the blue and say you're sorry!" he yelled. His eyes were filled with tears, something Alfred hasn't seen in a long time.

Alfred remained where he was and allowed those words to stab his heart until he finally understood why. As much as he wanted to yell back asking Arthur on what he should do instead, he felt defeated at this point. It's been nearly a year since he and the others played the game, yet so much has changed for everyone. What he had been doing was done out of complete selfishness and pride, without any concern to those who also share the same objectives as him.

_Everyone wanted to save Kiku, like me..._he thought quietly. _But I went beyond that. And I did find him alive and well, but how about the others? They didn't trust me. Envious for being a very advanced player...It doesn't fit well with those whose levels are much lower. I don't think they admired all the equipment I have with me at all...they saw it as an insult for their efforts to make it through over 18 floors without my help._

"We didn't finish our little fight earlier," Alfred said. "Now's our chance to let that happen, with no one to interfere this time." As he took out his player menu and sent a duel invite to him, he drew out his sword and pointed its tip at Arthur, grinning as he did so. "If you can manage to defeat me with everything you've got, then I'll take it as a punishment that I deserved."

But Arthur didn't buy that. "A little unfair of you, don't you think?" he spat out, taking out his sword. "And being 20 levels more than me…" Soon enough, he received Alfred's request without any hesitation.

"Both of us aren't going to fight with anything else but our swords," Alfred explained. "Not even the crystals will be of help. I just want to see how much you've changed since I left."

"Fine."

As they prepared themselves until the countdown reached zero, both remained where they are, trying to move as little as they could. And as soon it reached zero, they sprinted forward, both swords pointed at each other.

_Come on, Arthur...I want to see how you've been fighting._

_I won't let you win, Alfred!_


	12. Floor Ten-and-a-Half

_You can skip this chapter, if you want to get on with the main story._

* * *

«Floor 10.5: Virtual Christmas»

It was that time of the year again. It's been almost one year since the death game began in Aincrad; as for the countries playing the game, a mere eight or nine months - no one really knew how long they've been in the game and all of them lost track. For them, it already felt like a whole year went by, after levelling up floor after floor for days straight.

When they all woke up the next day, they received a message from Yao, telling them to meet him outside. To save some Cols, all of them were staying in a large flat on the third floor of one of the buildings, close to the Town Square (as of Christmas Eve, they stayed in _«Floor 49»_). Without any question, they got up, dressed and headed downstairs, only to find the city covered with snow.

"Wahhh!" Feliciano blurted out with surprise. "It's snowing!" But then he began to shiver. "Brr, but it's cold!" Without a word, he rushed back inside.

"So you woke us up to see the place covered in snow?" Arthur asked, letting out a huge yawn as they saw Yao approaching them, carrying a huge pile of presents.

"Ah, Arthur, is that you?" Yao asked behind the pile, struggling to balance himself. Suddenly, he slipped on a spot of ice and fell backwards, throwing the presents into the air. Ludwig quickly rushed towards him while Ivan and Alfred caught the presents.

"You could've called one of us to come with you," Ludwig said to Yao, as he helped him get up. "You know, because of that…" He was referring to the fact that Yao is much older than the others, despite his somewhat youthful figure.

"What's with the presents anyway?" Arthur asked, taking one of them from Ivan's pile. "Are they for us?"

Yao nodded. "Yep," he answered. "And I made them myself, too."

"Are they going to help us?" Alfred asked, gazing back as he heard Feliciano coming out of the building now bundled up.

"Well, I thought about the stats everyone has right now, as one of the things while I made the items for each of you. Especially with what happened in our last battle with _«Nicholas the Renegade»_. I mean, had Alfred not show up in time, we would've been killed right then and there. I don't want that to happen again...not this time."

"Do you think we should go level up a little bit?" Francis wondered. "I don't want to stay inside all day just to wait until nighttime when we can open those gifts. And besides I still think we're a little underleveled, too."

"He's got a point," Ivan agreed, nodding.

So with Ivan and Alfred carrying the presents up the stairs, they redressed into their normal outfits, while keeping themselves warm at the same time, and strapped their weapons on.

"You know," Alfred began, as he opened his player and menu and checked his inventory, "I think other players are thinking the same thing."

"Like what?" Yao asked, tucking the presents under his bed (since he, Ivan and Alfred share a room together). "Levelling up during the holidays?"

"Yeah. There's no TV here, so that kinda ruins the fun. And for some, they don't want to read books; they want to get out of here, from this death game." Then Alfred paused. "And to tell you the truth, those bosses at the upper floors...They're really powerful. No wonder Kiku is waiting for us up there."

"He's afraid that he won't make it, no matter how powerful he is."

"Pretty much."

"Come on, let's go join with the others."

* * *

For much of the day, all of them increased their levels by having random encounters in the forest outside the city. They did earn some Cols and EXP along the way, but some of them also learnt some new moves as well.

Alfred learnt an advanced skill called _«Deadly Sins»_, which consists of 360-turns and somersaults while also making an 8-hit sword combo. Arthur earned a skill called _«Serration Wave»_, which fills more of a support-type since it doesn't do any damage but it does hinder an enemy's movement. Yao got _«Snake Bite»_ as his new sword skill, which comes with two-hits but one hits causes the damage. He also earned an _«Extra Skill»_, which is _«Martial Arts»_. ("Kinda fits you well, doesn't it?" Alfred asked him, when Yao found out about it after their training.)

Ludwig didn't earn any new skills, but he started thinking about switching into a double-handed sword like Ivan. He had been thinking about it for quite some time.

"It's just that they're not common weapons around here," he said, when they stopped for a lunch break around a bonfire. "I don't know if there's any other skill besides _«Whirlwind»_, but if that's it, I should change my weapon before we could go up there."

"Are you okay with that?" Arthur asked. He took a bite of his bread. "I don't think it'll be easy switching over from two-handed axe to a two-handed sword."

Yao shook his head. "I don't think it should be that hard, if you're still fighting with a two-handed weapon," he answered. "The skills might be something to work on, but besides that, we're fine with it."

"Yeah, it'll be fine as long as you can fight," Feliciano agreed. "And that you're alive, too."

"Thanks, you guys," Ludwig replied. "I appreciate that." Even he was surprised when Ivan quietly agreed with the others.

Ivan learnt _«Back Rush»_, a countering two-handed sword technique. Feliciano got _«Star Splash»_, which is a high-level rapier technique that consists an eight-hit combination. And finally, Francis learned _«Crucifixion»_, which is a 6-hit combo of three horizontal and three vertical slashes that would resemble a cross.

As for Matthew, he ended up learning three new skills: _«Precognition»_ (the ability to predict the next move), _«Insight»_ (the ability to predict an attack from a distance) and _«Mislead»_ (the ability to trick a monster's AI to burden them). All of which are known as Outside System Skill. Since Matthew isn't an NPC (as he's independently controlled by himself) or a normal player in combat (which meant he couldn't fight, let alone handle weapons), the best he could do was take his invisibility into his advantage and exploit it into the virtual world. But because he has low HP it can cost his stamina. Out of everyone, Matthew only revealed this fact to Alfred.

By the time they finished, everyone was exhausted and almost out of energy. Both Alfred and Feliciano fell on the ground in a heap.

"I guess I'll carry Al on the way back," Francis said, sheathing his rapier before walking over to Alfred.

Ludwig quietly did the same for his axe while he went to carry Feliciano on his back.

"Once we're home, we're going to open the presents," Yao said, smiling. "I just really hope all of you would like it…"

* * *

When they arrived, they all slumped down into a circle, while Yao returned with the pile of presents from that morning and handed them to everyone, including Matthew, who hasn't said much the entire day. But Yao knew that despite his invisibility, he also has been trying his best to gain levels as much as he could.

"I don't know if what you'll get would be of help to you," Yao told him, as Matthew took his gift. "But I hope you'll like it."

"_I think it'll help, don't worry_," Matthew replied. "_Oh, and thank you, too_."

"You're welcome," he replied. But Yao saw that once Matthew touched the gift, it became invisible.

Meanwhile as Yao handed the gifts to Francis and Ludwig, Arthur gave Alfred a poke on his cheek to wake him up; whereas Ludwig and Francis gently shook Feliciano up and Yao gave him his gift.

"_Grazie_," Feliciano replied, along with a huge yawn.

"Alright, I wanna see what I got!" Alfred said, opening his.

While the rest followed suit, Ivan gave Yao a rather large gift.

"But you don't have to give me one, you know," Yao replied, when Ivan quietly insisted. Then he gazed at the others. "I don't know much about gift giving."

"Well, I don't like it if someone I fight with feels left out," Ivan answered back.

_No point in arguing about that_ Yao thought quietly. _It seemed like a straightforward answer._

"Grandpa Frost told me to give you something," Ivan added, "so I did."

Yao blinked with surprise. "Tell him thank you from me, I guess," he said, after a pause.

"Спасибо," Ivan replied, nodding as he walked away with his gift.

Alfred was the first one to see what he got from Yao, which was a pair of spectacles that would increase his accuracy by 50%, while taking less resistance from burns, shocks and the like.

"Man, this pair of glasses might just be the best one I've gotten!" Alfred took out his current pair and slipped on the newer one. "I'm still surprised that you made this yourself, Yao."

"I just hope it would help you out in the battlefield," Yao replied back with a faint smile.

"The hell it will!" Alfred grinned.

Francis was the next one. He got a dark blue frock coat from Yao that would increase his speed in proportion of his attack - the more he attacks, the faster he gets. It also has increased evasion by 15%. (Compared to Feliciano, while his evasion stats is quite inferior, his attacks are superior.)

"Really now?" Francis asked Yao. "Clothes for me?"

"Well, if you don't want it, I could just throw it away," Yao said, a little afraid of the item he had spent the most time on to be thrown out.

Stunned, Francis grabbed his new coat and held it around his arms. "No way," he answered. He shook his head. "You can't throw this away. It's too pretty for me to let it go like that."

"My turn!" Feliciano chimed in. And once he opened his presents, he jumped up with surprise at what he received: a new rapier from Yao.

"Ahh, thank you so much, Yao!" Feliciano stood up and gave Yao a hug. "I didn't expect you would make me a new one!"

"Well, I found out your rapier broke in half during our fight with _«Nicholas the Renegade»_ recently," Yao explained. "And although I tried to fix it as much as I can, it's impossible. So I made a new one, which might be even better than the one you had."

Feliciano examined his sword a little. "Well, it's a lot better," he replied, checking the stats. "Increased attack and celerity by 15%. That's almost the same as Francis'."

Arthur opened his without saying a word. He got a set of five daggers from Yao.

"It's nice and might be really helpful during battles," Arthur muttered, though everyone can hear him. "But I don't know what's great about owning daggers..."

"These aren't just some daggers," Yao said, taking one of them. "I made them so that they can paralyse the enemy for a short while - about three minutes would be enough - so these can be thrown from a distance and stay there until they disappear, once those three minutes are up." He paused for a moment as he returned the dagger back into its place. "The daggers would disappear and return inside the box. It took some trial and error to get that one right, but it should work."

Arthur smiled. "Thanks, Yao," he said.

Ludwig was next. He got from Yao a long, hooded black coat that would boost his defence by 30%, along with increased resistance and evasion during battle. (Unlike Ivan, Ludwig was slower on his attacks and takes more damage, despite having high HP.)

"Wow, this is really nice," he said. He equipped the black coat right away. "Thank you so much," he added.

"Sure," Yao replied, nodding.

After Ludwig, it's Ivan's turn. He didn't say much as he opened his two presents from Yao: a white scarf that should boost his attack and defence by 25%.

"Since your scarf was also destroyed during the last battle," Yao tried to explain, fearing that Ivan might not like it, "I thought I should make another one. I know it won't be the same as the original, but it should be harder to get it into ruin."

"Thank you" was Ivan's only reply, before putting it on. "Now I'm happier than ever…and don't worry, it's just as nice as the one I had."

Yao smiled.

Although he was invisible, Matthew opened his also invisible present in front of them. But no one can see his reaction at what he got. He received a newer pair of spectacles from Yao, which should increase his accuracy and speed in spotting an enemy's critical points by about 25%.

"Wah!" he sighed out loud in surprise. "I like the glasses a lot, Yao! Thank you!" Then he went towards Yao and gave him a hug, which the latter didn't mind.

Finally, it was Yao's turn. From Ivan, he received a new Jian sword, which is much better than the one he's currently using (a Daobao). It has increased attack and accuracy by 50%. (Yao was stunned by how much Cols Ivan had spent on this. He wanted to ask, but he found it a little rude, so he kept his mouth shut.)

"I really like it, Ivan," he said, looking down at the blade. The sword resembled a little of his old sword, but less power and sometimes misses its attacks. "Thank you."

But then, Alfred stood up and handed a present to Yao.

"It's not from me," he said, handing it to him. "We put together our share of money to get this for you."

"What is it?" Yao wondered, opening the wrapped gift. It was a box that would contain everything for weapons forgery and armour repair - more than what Yao needed to improve his skills. "You shouldn't have, you guys…"

"Well, you deserved it," Feliciano said, smiling. "You're pretty much our leader during this game...and well, tried keeping us together when Alfred was gone. And since you're pretty much our blacksmith and our tailor, you'll definitely need them."

Yao tore up a little. "Alright, thank you, really," he replied, swiping open his player menu and kept the box into his inventory. "But I want Alfred to be the sub-leader, too. He know so much about the upper floor bosses than I do."

Francis crossed his arms and gazed at Alfred. "Well, I'm fine with that as long as he doesn't ditch us again, " he said.

"Sounds like a promise, huh?" Alfred asked, grinning. "Alright, I'll keep word on that." He paused for moment. "Although I wonder how Kiku is spending his Christmas…"

"I don't think he celebrates it either," Yao replied, shaking his head a little. "So he's just wandering around the higher floors, completing other side-missions or the like. Or he could be resting like us, waiting until we all get there on the 75th floor."

"Do you think he needs a gift?"

"His only gift from us is being there with him again, fighting on his side against the boss."

"Sounds good."

A few minutes later, after looking at each other's new item they received, they decided to turn in for the night before heading off the next day.


	13. Floor Eleven

«Floor Eleven: Not Just Some Duel…»

As soon as the countdown reached zero, everything became nothing but a blur and in a flash, both Arthur and Alfred were in the air, their swords crossed against each other.

"My, I didn't expect that from you at all," Alfred taunted, grinning. Then he deflected Arthur's sword and slashed his sword from his right.

Arthur quickly noticed this and by straightening his body, let himself fall to the ground to dodge the attack. "I don't think so," he replied back. He threw a glare at him and leapt off the ground once more. "I won't let you win!"

"Bring it on!" Alfred yelled, defending himself.

"And I'll be damn sure I wipe off that grin from your face!"

Their swords clashed once more. Without any delay, everything around them blurred as they tried to land an attack on each other. Despite Arthur being a few levels lower than him, Alfred never expected the young man to reach his level of speed. He knew Arthur's role was mostly support to either Feliciano and Francis or Ludwig or Ivan; he could say the same for Yao, too. It was like that since they defeated _«Illfang»_. Out of everyone, Arthur would be second to Matthew in terms of low HP. Yao was only above him simply because he was able to fight and provide help to the others at the same time.

And of course, Ivan was the most advanced of all. Alfred himself doesn't know what or even how he managed to gain a high level than the rest. In fact, he was only 20 levels or so less than him. Whether it was because his attacks cause more damage, or he's simply an aggressive fighter who can land a damaging blow without even trying, Alfred doesn't know. Not that Ludwig can't do that either, ranking just behind Ivan. His attacks were damaging, too, like Ivan's, but Alfred believed there was something missing. Whatever it was, he also had little clue.

Yet he was concerned with Matthew, who have the lowest HP of all. He may be invisible, but he's also the weakest player. It's not because he couldn't help the others out, but because he couldn't carry weapons, wear armour, or point out an enemy's exact weak spot. The best he could do with the latter is to describe the location as detailed as could, yet as fast as he can at the same time. (If anything, Alfred thought to himself, Matthew would've been a bard, fighting only with musical instruments and with magic...despite magic being non-existent within Aincrad.) Matthew doesn't know if the enemies can sense his presence, but he had a feeling the bosses at the upper floors might notice him eventually, in which it's rendered useless. Despite it being his greatest advantage, it's also his biggest weakness. And Alfred is scared that if Matthew dies, he wouldn't know how he died at all. He would probably remain silent…

But he knew it would be his fault if he failed to protect Matt.

_Maybe because I arrived a little too late_ he thought, as he dodged Arthur's _«Rage Spike»_ and countered with a _«Sonic Leap»_. He could still remember what he found when he arrived to the woods. He saw everyone lying on the ground, barely unconscious, with Ludwig and Yao beyond their limits and both waiting for that ugly Santa Claus to kill them quickly. Although he was a little to see Ivan amongst those lying on the ground, he couldn't help seeing the Matthew's body sprawled about on the snow. He couldn't tell if he was alive or dead, which could be why he managed to take down that Santa Claus with a few attacks. _Maybe thinking that Matthew was hurt or barely alive triggered that anger inside me..._Most of all, maybe he didn't want to see everyone dead that got himself attacked with such speed and power from the boss.

_Or maybe I'll never know for now…_

Alfred wondered to himself - he wondered if Arthur was thinking the same - how long he and Arthur had been fighting. A minute or two, maybe five or ten...certainly not an hour, not even half an hour...maybe less than a quarter. Both of them were already scratched and their clothes having torn here and there, but that did little to their HP. A scratch isn't enough to subtract the damage point from their HP. That's way too small for a damage. It's nothing but a small bruise on the skin either. One thing that's certain is that both of them aren't tired yet and that they want to prove each other wrong. Until Arthur or Alfred wins, this duel isn't over.

* * *

"Hey, Francis," Matthew quietly called out. As usual, he was sleeping on the desk, which is right beside the bed where Francis was lying down. "I can't sleep."

Although Matthew was silent most of the time, for Francis it was loud. "What?" he mumbled, trying to head back to sleep.

"It's Alfred and Arthur," he said. "It's been almost an hour already. Don't you think we should go see them?"

Francis groaned when he heard this. He really wanted to sleep after nearly getting killed - he lost track of time, despite having the time within his sight. And the last thing he wanted was to go outside and see if those two are already dead, not that he wanted them to. "I think we should just leave them alone, Matt," he replied, putting an arm on his eyes. "We'll know they're alive if we see them lying on the ground after who knows how long they've been dueling. Right now, just get some sleep."

Matthew sighed quietly in disappointment. "Okay," he answered. And everything was silent once more.

* * *

"What, you're tired already?" Alfred asked, landing back down on the ground. He gazed at Arthur, who was panting. One hand on his knee, while his other holding the sword to the ground.

Arthur shook his head. "No, we're not done yet," he replied, panting in between. "I don't care if this lasts all night...I want you defeated by me!" Then without a word, he took his sword and ran towards him, ready to land another attack. But Alfred simply blocked his attack and with another swipe of his sword, knocked it out of Arthur's hand. It flew into the air for a moment and with the blade pointed down, landed into the snowy ground.

_Why, you little-! _Arthur began, about to take a step towards his sword. But Alfred knew this was going to happen. Within seconds of knocking it off from Arthur's hand, he quickly pointed his pointed tip of sword to Arthur's throat.

"Take another step and you're done for," Alfred warned. His eyes were so serious that Arthur realised he wasn't joking this time. Even the tone he used wasn't the same that moment; it sounded deeper and rather more grown-up than his normal, high-pitched voice. But this quickly disappeared as he saw him smiling once more while lowering his sword.

"Guess I won, alright," Alfred said, putting his weapon away, while he watched Arthur grab his and also put it away.

Arthur still didn't speak. He felt like crying deep inside. He was defeated by someone who had left for so long, yet he came back, this time having advanced moves and having very good equipment. He was jealous just seeing him with those things, and in fact he wondered if he even wanted that rare item that he and the others wanted. _You already had enough rare items on you _he thought angrily. _Why do you need another one?_ _Oh, is it to make me even more jealous of you than before? That's probably why…_

As they headed back, neither of them spoke to one another. Of course, Alfred whistled a tune for himself, while Arthur remained downcast, not bothering to watch his steps. Above them, snow began to fall.

_Maybe for now, I'm okay with Arthur hating on me_ Alfred thought, gazing up at the sky. _I'm probably fine with Francis and Yao, too. I left everyone out of pride and selfishness, thinking that they're only slowing down to find Kiku, but now that I've come back, I couldn't help feeling impressed with how much they've improved. (Although going after Santa Claus at that level is a little reckless in their part…)_

* * *

When they returned, everyone else were already asleep. But before Alfred could reach the doorknob, Arthur stopped him.

"I want to be left alone for now," he told him. "If anything, go sleep with Francis or anyone else...just don't sleep with me." Then he opened the door and closed it in front of him.

Alfred stood where he was, still surprised at Arthur's sudden change of attitude towards him. _If he doesn't let that anger go, I think he'll be in great trouble _he thought. Then without a word, he made for Francis and Matthew's room next door.

Francis was almost half-asleep when he heard the door open.

"Okay, what is it this time, Yao?" he asked out loud. When he heard no response, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, only to see Alfred standing nearby. "Why are you here, Alfred?" he added. "Arthur kicked you out."

"Yeah," Alfred replied walking towards him, careful not to wake Matthew up as he slept on the desk. "Arthur told me to leave him alone for now." He paused. "Seriously, what's up with him lately? He's been really angry with me since I came back. I saved his life, yet he's treating me like he wants something me…" - He dropped his voice to a whisper - "_But I don't know what it is!_" he hissed in anger.

"Well, I'm not the mood to find that out," Francis whispered back, not caring as his words became slurs. "I think there's a small couch across the room. You can sleep there tonight if you want." He shifted his position and rolled on his side. "Now, please, don't wake me up. I really want to sleep…." But it wasn't long before a snore could be heard under the covers.

Meanwhile, Alfred removed his brown coat and his sword and placed them on the floor beside him. He wore only his white long-sleeved top and dark-coloured jeans, while he kept his black ankle boots on. Lying on his back, he stared at the ceiling for a moment and thought about what Arthur had told him.

_So don't you dare tell me that we risked our lives to get to here, only for you to show up out of the blue and say you're sorry!_

"I kinda have to admit that hurts," he muttered to himself, rolling on his side. "But then again, it's true...I did left them." Then he felt his eyes water and tears rolled down his face until he fell asleep.


	14. Floor Twelve

«Floor Twelve: It's (not) a Reunion (?)»

_«Alright, everyone, time for another World Meeting._

_From Yao.»_

Everyone in the group received this message as soon as they woke up. They all decided to stay for a night at an inn the previous day, after arriving at the 74th floor sometime in the late afternoon. Tired and exhausted, everyone wanted some rest before heading for the dungeon located outside the city.

Until now, Arthur still remained distant from Alfred, his grudge against him didn't wane at all. Rather, it grew stronger as the days passed by to the point that he thought about killing him more than once during their journey up the floors. But he kept this from everyone, especially from Alfred and Matthew. He did think about revealing these dark thoughts to Matthew, but he knew that Matthew trusts Alfred so much that he'll definitely tell what's on his mind.

_He's too weak to keep any secret_ Arthur thought, after deciding not to tell Matthew about it. _I'd rather die than let Matthew bottle up those things inside him and spill the beans._

Before he could think about doing the same to Francis, he quickly chose not to as well. F_rancis? No, fuck that_ he added. _He may be good at keeping secrets, but I don't trust him that much._

As for Alfred, once he read over Yao's message, he didn't get up for a minute. He wondered why Arthur would still refuse to talk to him; he already knew why, yet he couldn't comprehend why Arthur couldn't simply accept it and move on. Even he knew how he behaved toward him, especially during the boss battles.

_It's as if I don't exist to him_ he pondered to himself. _At some point, he needs to spit everything out. Not only to me, but to everyone...including Matt. And I don't care if needs to be hurtful; I just want him to talk to me again._

Without a word, he slowly got up and dressed.

_And you, Matt,_ he muttered quietly, _I hope this next boss wouldn't put so much burden on you. Ever since the 50th floor, I knew there was something wrong…_

* * *

Once everyone gathered in Yao's room, which was also shared with Ivan, the World Meeting began.

"Now that everyone's here, let's start," Yao began. "First of all, this will probably be our last meeting together before we meet Kiku for sure."

"I'm just surprised that we'd actually make it this far," Ludwig said, facing each person one by one. "If we didn't think about saving Kiku, I wouldn't know why I'm even here in the first place."

"I don't think I'll survive for this long, too," Feliciano agreed.

"Well, at least, we're here now, right?" Alfred asked the two of them. "He's one of your close friends. Trying to know whether he's alive or not, that's enough for a motivation for both of you."

"That's true," Ludwig replied, nodding.

"I don't know much about him, but he's a country like us," Francis said, after a short pause. "I can't imagine what will happen if a country dies, whether in a virtual world or real life."

"Kiku can't die, not in a world like this," Arthur cut him off, finally speaking up for the first time. "He's too stubborn to die. It would be a really shitty excuse for him to simply die here."

Stunned by this, everyone gazed at him with widened eyes. It's not that Arthur cursed twice to describe Kiku, but it's the fact that he would speak up that took them by surprise.

Of course, Arthur couldn't understand why the others are staring at him that way.

"Okay, it's not like I would never talk to all of you forever," he blurted out, trying to shake off the awkward silence. "Let's just keep going with the meeting, alright?"

"We're just glad that you're coming back to your senses again," Francis replied, grinning at him.

"Well, what you said not long ago was definitely not true," Arthur answered back with a smirk.

"Come on, you guys, focus," Yao called. "Anyway, yeah, Arthur's right. I don't think kiku would die so easily. But moving into another subject, about the 74th floor boss…"

"Let me guess, another tough boss?" Francis asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes, but there's more than just being a tough nut. Everything inside the boss room will be really useless...including Matthew's ability to point out weaknesses."

_Damn, I knew it!_ Alfred realised. Without knowing it, he found his fists tightened into a ball, only to find his palms lightly covered with blood. _I knew this was going to happen!_

_«Hey, Al. Are you okay? You don't look good.»_

"Hey!"

"He's not lagging, is he?"

"Nah, can't be that."

"Yo, wake up!"

"What?!"

When Alfred composed himself once more, he saw everyone's terrified faces.

"Now, now," he said. "It's okay. Something just came up."

"You knew about it, did you?" Yao asked him, shaking his head a little. "I thought so, too."

"Is there a way for us to change anything?" Arthur suddenly yelled. He stood up and stomped his foot on the floor. "We can't just let Matthew sit there and do nothing!"

Francis stood up as well and tried to calm Arthur down, before he could anything further. "Come on, sit down," he muttered to him. "We're thinking the same."

Yao swiped his menu and skimmed on the guide and his player menu for a minute. But despite finding any information, there was no way to change the system. "I can't do it," he said, restraining his voice into an angry yell. "The security level is too high for me break through. Even if I can change the settings for a bit, I'm afraid that I would risk breaking the entire game itself."

"How bad would it get?" Ludwig wondered.

"He would end up killing everyone here in Aincrad, plain and simple," Alfred replied. "You, me, Matt...everything, all gone."

"What a terrible way to die," Ivan said, finally speaking for the first time.

"No, we can't do that," Feliciano said. He tried to calm down, yet he's failing. "We have to see Kiku first!"

"Damn it!" Arthur yelled. "If there's nothing that Matt can do…"

_«Everyone»_ Matthew spoke up, _«it's going to be fine. I haven't thought of anything that I could do for now, but I'll think of something. I promise I would help all of you, so we all can meet Kiku on the next floor. I'll keep my word.»_

_«I may not be helpful at this point»_ he thought, _«but I want to keep everyone together. I don't want to see anyone leaving again. Or worse, everyone going on their separate paths…»_

_«It's not just me who wanted to see our friend again….I'm sure our friend would want to see us, too.»_

"Then we'll keep our share as well," Alfred replied back, grinning a little. "Now let's return to the subject...what will be our boss?"

"Let's see…" Yao skimmed through the guide once more. "Well, other than the fact that we can't use crystals and that Matthew's ability is useless at this point, our enemy this time is capable ofsword skills. But not only sword skills, this one also uses something else, like it can shoot beams out of their mouth."

"Okay, so it's a tough enemy, alright," Alfred said, leaning back a little. "What's our plan?"

"Wait, you've never been here before?" Francis wondered suddenly.

"I only knew the floors below 70. So all the bosses that we've faced so far from _«Floor 71»_ up to here, I only heard it through rumours." Alfred scratched the back his head in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"No wonder you didn't say much during the boss battles," Arthur muttered.

"Anyway, I think we can start with the heavy-hitters, Ivan and Ludwig so we can see just how strong it is and how much damage we can afflict," Yao began. "If it starts acting oddly, we'll have the quick-hitters, Feliciano and Francis, to find out its defense. Arthur and I would still remain as the backup, and Alfred would at least find some weak spots while he's also fighting. My guess is that Matthew should stay as far as he can and try to set a strategy on defeating the boss. He won't point out the weak spots, but he can observe the movements. If he can do that during battle, then that's as best he could do as an "invisible" player." Then he paused. "To be really honest here," he continued, "the guide doesn't really mention anything about the boss, so yeah, I'm making quite a gamble here. I don't think I even need it at this point either."

Without a word, he went to his inventory and dropped the guide.

"And if we do end up defeating the boss," he said, "we'll make it into our own guide. So I guess tomorrow is the day."

"Yeah, it is," Feliciano agreed.

"I can't believe we're seeing him tomorrow," Arthur added.

"He's waiting for us up there," Francis said.

"Let's get some sleep," Alfred decided, standing up. "We leave at dawn."

* * *

Everyone was silent as they got up just before dawn. As they headed down to get some breakfast, no one still spoke up. There was no way to tell if it's because of excitement or mere sleepiness, yet today was the day.

On their way to the floor Labyrinth, Yao led the way. Although he didn't need the guide anymore, he referred to it after examining the faintly drawn map. He also heard rumours on their way that there should be a forest close by, in order to know that the dungeon is near. The town and the forest itself takes about half an hour. Between the forest and the Labyrinth, there would a meadow of blue flowers. Right ahead would be the entrance, carved on the one of the mountains.

Since Yao decided not to stop, everyone arrived by the entrance, exhausted and a little out of breath from walking.

"Hey, Yao, let's stop for a minute," Francis said. He placed his hands on his knees as he spoke.

"If we wait, we're just delaying ourselves from seeing kiku," Yao replied. Then he paused. "We can take a break before we head inside the boss room."

"Fine."

Once inside, they found themselves in a rather dark, yet somewhat colourful room. Everything seemed to be made from a kind of obsidian-type of stone, as the walls and the floor have thin white lines that run along the path. Here and there were patches of different colours, mostly multicolour, as well as white dead-looking trees that resemble more of spindly fingers than a tree.

"You know, for a Labyrinth, this one looks rather pretty," Francis said, admiring the place.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it's a safe place," Arthur answered. "There could be some monsters wandering about here."

"Arthur's right," Yao agreed. "The Labyrinth shouldn't be any different the previous ones downstairs, so keep alert."

"Seems like a good idea," Ivan replied, reaching to hold the handle of his sword for a moment before letting it go.

It wasn't long before they had a first encounter, which is a lone _«Demonic Servant»_. It didn't have any skin, as it looked more of a skeleton, but it can't be underestimated as it carries a shield and a sword.

"Huh, looks like we got company and something to do now." Then Alfred drew out his sword. "Anyone wanna help out?"

"I'll go," Feliciano chimed in, already brandishing his rapier. "Let's go."

Rushing at the enemy, Feliciano attacked with _«Star Splash»_, in which he swerved in a zigzag motion before giving three quick jabs at the chest, then adding two more strong slashes at the legs and another jab up and down. But before he could add the last hit, the enemy managed to react just in time and raised its shield, blocking it.

"That's not fair," he muttered. "_«Switch»_!"

"Alright!" Alfred joined in. He blocked the first few attacks, before dodging it and landing a «Horizontal Square», quickly ending the fight.

"Why use a mid-level attack on a high-level enemy?" Ivan wondered aloud.

"It doesn't even look like the boss for me," Alfred explained, shrugging. "It looks more of a level 70 character than random enemy. That's too weak for me."

Without a word, they walked on.

"Hey, when we actually meet Kiku," Feliciano spoke up, "how do you think he would react?"

"I think he would be surprised that we would reach this high," Francis suggested. "Unless of course, he wants to duel with him and prove that we're right."

"But what if it's not Kiku that we meet?" Ivan asked.

Silence. Everyone stopped in their tracks. No one, including Alfred, thought about not meeting Kiku, but meeting someone else instead. In fact, finding Kiku was their only reason they dove into Aincrad in the first place. But now that Ivan asked an unimaginable question, there's really no way to answer it.

"Then we came here for absolutely nothing," Arthur finally replied.

As they kept going, they could see a door at the end of the path, with one other field boss blocking the way. Like the «Demonic Servant», this one also wields a weapon and also carries a shield. It noticed them once they're close and soon enough, everyone's monitors read the enemy as the «Lizardman Lord», which looks like a human-like lizard with blue skin and red eyes. It wears a helmet and breastplate, along with a curved sword as its primary weapon.

"My turn now," Arthur said, drawing his sword out. "Wanna help me out anyone?"

"I'll go," Yao answered, following suit.

The enemy began the fight, only for Arthur to quickly block the attack and counter with _«Sharp Nail»_, his newly acquired sword skill. After the block, he moved his sword from his bottom-right and made a diagonal slash to the top-left, followed by a horizontal slash to the top-right and finally from the top-right to the bottom left. At that point, the _«Lizardman Lord»_'s HP was reduced to half.

"Okay, Yao, you're next," Arthur called out, turning towards him. "_«Switch»_!"

"I got it." Then Yao rushed up to the enemy, made a slash from left to right and back. Although it had two hits, it only consisted of one sound made from the attack.

"What was that?" Alfred asked, widening his eyes. "I saw two hits, but you made it look like a one-hit."

"It's a sword skill that I've been working on for a while," Yao replied, sheathing his sword. "It's called _«Snake Bite»_. It would've been more suitable for rapier users, though, not one-handed sword ones."

"So based on how fast you execute it, it's probably a high-level skill at that," Ludwig said.

"Exactly." Then he began to walk on. "Now let's just hope that there's a safe point before we could head inside the boss room."

Soon enough, they passed through the barrier that marks the safe place. After a few minutes of rest and adding some final changes into the plan, they headed inside.

But what they found instead completely took them by surprise.

There was a large corpse lying in the middle of the room. It had dark blue skin, a pair of mountain goat's horns and a tail that looked like a cobra. Its weapon, which is a large Zanbato sword, lay a few meters from the body. Yet before the group could even take a step forward and find out whether it's been beaten, the monster quickly shattered into pieces and disappearing into air. Realising that there was someone or something in the room waiting for them, everyone kept their guard up and drew out their weapons, looking around to see if they would notice something strange.

"Why does it feel like something bad's going to happen?" Francis wondered quietly, gripping his sword.

_«Al»_, Matthew called Alfred, lightly tugging on his sleeve, _«I have a really bad feeling about this place...as if Kiku isn't even here at all.»_

But before Alfred could ask what Matthew and Francis meant, he was cut off.

"Hello, everyone. Did you miss me?" an unusual, yet very familiar sound rung out from the other end of the room. "I did not think we would see each other again!"

Then out of the dark was a young man with short black hair. He wore a white formal-looking uniform and on his left hand was a katana, kept inside a black sheath. At first, it looked like Kiku to everyone, but there was something very different about him.

"Don't even bother finding your friend here in Aincrad," he continued with a dark smirk. "He's been gone for a while and I've been here since."

After trying to figure out, Alfred suddenly realised who he was.

"No, it couldn't be…" he began. He gripped his sword tighter as his eyes widened in fear.

Soon enough, the others found out.

"So it is you," Ivan said.

"Yes, I'm back," replied the young man. "The 'other' Kiku."

* * *

_Sorry in advance about Ivan and Matthew not having much speaking roles and for the amount of profanity here, especially to Alfred and Arthur._


	15. Floor Thirteen

«Floor Thirteen: Secrets»

"So it is you. Error."

"I'm not surprised you would remember my name, Ivan," he replied back, nodding at him as he smiled.

"Why are you here?" Arthur demanded. He tried to take a step forward, but Francis and Ludwig held him back. "Where is he?"

Alfred stepped forward and gazed back at Arthur for a moment, before facing Error again.

"What did you do to Japan?" He calmly asked. "Or in this case, Kiku?"

Error blinked in surprise for a moment, but he smiled at them. "Where do you think?" He asked him back.

Arthur widened his eyes with anger when he heard this. "You killed him, did you?" He roared. He struggled to free himself from Francis and Ludwig, yet failed. "Let me go!"

"Not until you calm down, you won't," Francis answered.

"He's still alive," Error explained. His voice unchanged over Arthur's yells. "But he's hidden away...somewhere."

"Where is Kiku?" Alfred asked again, his voice rising with anger. He slowly placed his hand around his sword's grip, while keeping his gaze at him. When the young man merely smiled at them, he was about to unsheathe his sword, but instead released his grip. "Is he at the 75th floor?"

"75th floor?" Error was confused for a moment. "No, I don't think you'll make it that far. He's not there anyway…" His expression quickly turned into mischief upon realising something, just as Alfred was about to react in anger. "But let's first talk about certain things, shall we?"

Everyone looked at one another. They felt confused at what Error had told them, but tried to keep their guard up.

"What do you mean, he's not there?" Feliciano asked. His voice shaken with fear, not daring to imagine what became of his missing friend. "He told us so." Yet Error didn't say anything, which left him defeated in silence.

Arthur glared at Error. "What _certain _things?" he demanded. "I swear, if you hurt him, you'll be sorry."

"About the one who left you for months, only to come back moments before all of you die." Error paused. "As for Kiku, he's fine. He's just somewhere hidden away. And even if you ask me, I wouldn't tell you."

Everyone turned to Alfred. They knew he had been gone without any explanation and returned just moments before they all disappear forever, but still they haven't given a thought as to what Alfred had been up to, other than explaining Kiku's whereabouts and his encounter with the missing young man. However, any subject that had everything to do with Alfred was enough to trigger a quick, angry expression from Arthur who hasn't forgiven him.

Alfred tried to keep his composure as firm as he could. "Well, then," he said, "we just have to force it out of you." He reached for his sword strapped behind him.

"How about telling us why Kiku is here in the first place?" Ludwig asked Error. He really doesn't want any fight, but he couldn't help thinking that it would happen. "We came here because we found out he's been missing for a while."

"I suppose you've never heard the entire story." Error made a disappointed sigh before asking them, "Your friend there might have heard of the guild _«_Laughing Coffin_»_, hasn't he?"

Everyone shook their heads, but Arthur glared at Alfred instead.

"You didn't know what he's been doing the whole time, while out there acting alone and pretending to be a hero around?" Error continued. "After all this time, not even once?"

_«__Al, what's he talking about?__» _Matthew asked Alfred, worried. _«__I just hope Arthur isn't going to be mad at you...You know, he hasn't accepted your apology even now.__»_

But Alfred still refused to answer. He kept his gaze at Error while his hand still held onto his sword.

"Your friend actually earned some recognition after fighting along the front lines for a while," Error explained, turning to Alfred. "Go ahead, tell them what you've been up to. Why you "accidentally" earned the title _«The Fiery Hawk»_?" Then he turned to others. "He earned it because of his speed and the red sword he's carrying around. You want to know why?"

"Why the hell not?" Arthur demanded, cutting Alfred off as he was about to answer. His voice filled with angry sarcasm. "You said no more secrets when you came back, that you'll tell everything! Or was that a big, fat white lie, too? Huh, Alfred?"

This time Alfred gripped his sword once more and held it tight as he ignored Arthur. "Don't you dare say it," he warned Error. "Or you'll regret that you're here in Aincrad."

"Is that so?" Error's eyes widened, but he made a sly grin. "If that's the case, you'll never learn about where that friend of yours is...I'm fine with it if I don't tell you." Then he shrugged. "It's all your fault anyway. When you decided to end lives of mere players just because they are "red", how did you feel?"

However, another voice rung out in the room.

"That's it!"

Everyone thought the yell was Alfred's, whose hand was still gripping on his sword…

But instead it was Arthur, whose sword was drawn and pointed directly at Alfred.

"You better explain yourself," Arthur spoke up. His boring gaze suddenly turned into a deadly glare.

Alfred knew this, but still tried to shake it off. "Now, Arthur, I'll-" he began.

"SHUT UP!" Arthur cut him off. "DON'T even start with an excuse!" He narrowed his green eyes. "Don't forget, I still haven't accepted you to be part of the team...Everyone might have done so, yeah...But not me."

"Fine, then," Alfred finally replied. Then he gripped his sword and slowly drew it out from the sheath, revealing the deep red blade that eventually earned him the title Error mentioned earlier. "You don't have to, because I know you wouldn't do it anyway." He pointed it at Arthur. "If you did forgive me, you'll be sorry."

"Uh, Alfred," Francis tried to step in between him and Arthur, who didn't dare take their gaze from one another. "I don't think now's the time for that. We need to force Error to tell us where Kiku is…"

"Yeah," Yao agreed, his voice filled with concern. "I know you and Arthur still haven't settled down, but we need to find Kiku…"

Ivan, Ludwig and Feliciano quietly nodded. The latter two were worried on what will happen, but Ivan's expression remained calm and blank.

_Al, you don't have to fight Arthur_, he said. _Please don't._

"No," Alfred answered, shaking his head. "This is between the two of us; you guys stay out of this." He faced Yao and grinned a little. "How about you go deal with Error?" he suggested.

"Four people against one...it looks evened out."

"Have you lost your mind?" Yao was stunned. "We can't fight him without you. Who knows what level he is compared to us!" He gazed back at Ivan. "And in case you forgot, our healing crystals are useless here; we'll die if our HP reaches zero!"

"Look, maybe I have a hunch about Arthur's attitude," Ludwig wondered after a pause, lowering his voice so Arthur wouldn't hear him. "You don't think Error's just influencing him, do you, Alfred? I thought that he could be…you know, like he did to me that time." He trailed off and waited until Alfred realised what he meant.

"That's one possibility," he replied. "But if that's the case, then I need to knock some sense back into him." Then without a word, he took out his sword and brandished it at Arthur, who still pointed his sword at him without any expression.

Error smiled, as he reached a hand in front of him and within seconds his sheathed katana appeared before him. "We have a two-way battle, then?" he asked them, including Arthur. "If I win, I'll be certain to go to where your beloved friend is and cut his life short."

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen," Ivan answered, slyly grinning as he brandished his sword at him. The others followed suit. "Remember that time you tried taking over us and actually succeeded? Yao and Matthew never had the chance...but this time, we won't let anyone else fall into that trap. And that includes knocking Arthur back into reality."

"Such words of inspiration from someone who is the most difficult enemy to defeat, yet hard to possess. I'll prove you wrong…" Error unsheathed his katana and looked at his reflection on the blade. "Better start saying goodbye to your friends…" he said coldly.

Without delay, he suddenly disappeared and began moving towards Yao and the others while appearing every few steps. Once he's close enough, he appeared behind Yao and tried to land an attack, but Yao managed to block it within a split second.

"We're not going to do that yet," Yao muttered, as he glared straight into his dead, dark eyes.

Smiling in response, Error disappeared once more. "Then let's play catch…" he challenged them.

"Any plans, Yao?" Francis called out, looking around.

"No, not this time," Yao replied, looking at him for a moment as he shook his head. "Just focus on trying not get any damage from Error. Who knows...he may be the highest-levelled non-boss here."

"I don't want to know what level he's at," Feliciano said. His grip on his rapier quivered a little. "If he can disappear and reappear within seconds and give us a high-levelled attack, that's a boss-type character. And that's who Error is."

Yet, just as Feliciano finished speaking, Error suddenly appeared behind him and tried to land an attack on him.

"Behind you!" Ludwig yelled at him. Out of instinct, he ran towards Feliciano.

It was too late; Feliciano didn't raise his rapier on time. Everything was a blur for him that he didn't scream in pain and once he opened his eyes, he has a large diagonal slash down his body, while his rapier lay far from him. He gazed up at his HP bar and saw that he taken nearly 50% of the damage.

_And there's no way I can heal here! _he thought angrily. For a moment, his vision blurred and his eyes closed. After struggling to sit up, he heard Ludwig rushing towards him. He quickly hid the red slash by covering it with his long coat, fearing that Ludwig would instead try to defend him.

_No, I should try to fend for myself for once_, he thought.

"Are you alright?" Ludwig asked, offering his hand.

"Yeah, although a little hurt from the attack," Feliciano replied, grabbing his hand and slowly stood up. He tried not to make any sound as the hidden wound caused him great pain. "And the others?" He glanced at Arthur and Alfred, both of whom were also fighting against each other.

"They're fine, I suppose. Come on."

Feliciano nodded as they both joined the fight once more. He gazed down to the red slash with worry, before he looked at his HP bar, which is now decreasing little by little.

* * *

Meanwhile, Alfred and Arthur dealt each other very aggressive attacks.

"Why, Alfred?" Arthur yelled at him, as he attacked him with _«Sharp Nail»_, in which Alfred blocked with his sword. "Why did you "accidentally" earned that stupid nickname while you're by yourself and we're below, fighting our way into the upper floors to catch up to you?"

«_Please, stop, the both of you!_» Matthew begged at them. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't be heard over the crossing swords. Even yelling wasn't enough. «_Please, don't hurt each other!_»

"I can't tell you," Alfred explained, blocking the attack and countering with Savage Fulcrum. "But you need to calm down. You're not being yourself!"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do!" Then Arthur recoiled for a moment to throw Alfred off and landed another _«Sharp Nail»_, which the latter failed to block on time and instead landed at his left side, leaving a glowing red slash and decreasing his HP bar by 10%.

Knowing that Arthur would land a similar attack, Alfred turned around and leapt off to a good distance from him, where he remained in his spot.

"What?" Arthur taunted, watching Alfred clutching his side where it still glowed red. "Feeling weak now, are we? What happened to _«The Fiery Hawk»_? Shot down to the ground? By me?!"

Alfred then collapsed and now stood in one knee. To keep himself in balance, he stabbed his sword to the ground. _That damage...that's way beyond his level _he thought to himself. _Maybe Yao was right. Arthur's under Error's influence, to the point that even his attack isn't something to take for granted, despite having a lower level than mine. I have to get himself together or…_He couldn't imagine what would happen to Arthur if Error overwhelms him completely. And since Error isn't exactly a human, anything that involves technology would be to his advantage. _That includes taking over the system, in which Aincrad is running in, and deleting everything in it at will…_

He suddenly remembered Yao telling everyone that there's no way he could go into the system without risking to delete everything and killing just about every player in Aincrad.

_...which means everyone here will die._

* * *

"Damn, this guy is way too fast!" Francis yelled, just managing to block another attack. He turned to Ivan, who quietly gazed about for Error. "Hey, Ivan, you got something to help us?"

But Ivan didn't reply.

"Here I am!" Error yelled out, suddenly reappearing in front of Yao. "Nah, I think I should hit someone else!" Then without warning he vanished once more and within seconds, reappeared in front of Ivan, attacking him with _«Ukifune»_.

What followed afterward stunned the others.

"IVAN!" they all yelled. They saw Error thrusting the young man into the air with his katana.

Again, Ivan didn't say anything as he was thrown into the air. He noticed his HP bar reduced by a third with the attack; to him, it all happened so fast. He wondered if this was how Feliciano had felt when Error attacked him. And then grinning to himself, he released his grip on his greatsword, which had been his primary weapon since, muttered silently and waited.

Below, the others were stunned as Ivan still went upward.

"You don't think he's dead, do you?" Francis wondered out loud. "That attack…"

"He's levelled near Alfred's," Yao tried to assure them. "I know he doesn't talk much, but he can't die that easily."

"True."

As Error leapt up to Ivan to dealt him the crushing blow, and entirely deplete his HP bar to zero, he raised his katana and pointed it in front of him.

"It's over!" he yelled at him. But Ivan was found nowhere.

"Hello," Ivan muttered, behind him. "Never underestimate me. They're my friends, so LEAVE THEM ALONE." With one slash with his scythe, he struck Error with such a force that sent him down to the ground.

* * *

"If Error is defeated," Feliciano wondered, "do you think he'll disappear?"

"I'm thinking the same thing," Francis agreed.

Yao thought about this for a moment. "For now, yes," he replied. "He's not human, but he's not a robot either...more like a virus that can destroy anything at will." He paused. "We can't simply defeat it ourselves...if anything, Kiku has to defeat him. He's his other self…"

Without warning, they heard a loud boom above them and they saw Error falling down to the ground. Soon after, Ivan landed behind him, holding a large weapon that's slowly faded and formed into shape in his hands. The others were stunned to see that it was a large scythe, something that even Death himself would carry around to reap souls.

"Huh?" Ivan turned to face the group, whose mouths dropped open in surprise. "Were you surprised?"

"How did you get it?" It was all Yao could manage to ask him.

Ivan shrugged, as he held his scythe over his shoulder. "I don't know," he replied. "Maybe luck just decided to intervene and gave this to me." But then he dropped to his knees. "Yet before all that, he gave me quite an attack...I didn't even know how to react."

"Well, your HP is quite low compared to ours now," Ludwig said, gazing at Ivan's HP bar from his monitor. "And there's no way we can heal here."

"At least I've managed to reduce his HP just enough," Ivan spoke up after a minute. He turned to Error, who started to stand up after being knocked unconscious by Ivan's counterattack.

"But I'm still here," Error growled quietly. He slowly stood on feet, before disappearing once more, only to reappear for a moment to grab his katana from the ground.

"Come on! We haven't finished our game yet!" he yelled at them, as he disappeared and reappeared around them while he spoke.

* * *

"Give up, Alfred!" Arthur yelled, throwing sword slashes at Alfred one after another.

But Alfred didn't say anything and blocked the attack without any effort. "You need to calm down, Arthur!" he yelled back. "You're not yourself! Error...He's controlling you and-!"

"SHUT UP!"

Arthur leapt up and tried to land a _«Vorpal Strike»_ at Alfred. "It's over now!" he shouted at him. "Die!"

Yet he didn't notice Matthew standing in front of Alfred to block the attack.

_«Stop!»_ Matthew yelled at his loudest, but he became quiet when he let out a loud gasp. He gazed down at his body and saw Arthur's sword through him.

At once, Arthur finally came into his senses and widened his eyes in fear as he removed his sword from Matthew and threw it aside, while Matthew fell down to his side, with he and Alfred catching him before he landed on the floor. Despite his invisibility, they felt something light in their hands.

"Matt!" Alfred called him. He laid him down gently. "Come on, stay with me!"

"I...I'm...I didn't…" Arthur began. He sat close to Matthew and gazed down at his side. "I...didn't mean...to do it…"

Matthew shook his head. _«...Nah, I know...it...wasn't you»_ he replied. _«I wonder...if you felt something...different when...you were attacking Al earlier.»_

"I was," Arthur answered. "But please...try to stay alive." He saw Matthew's faded HP depleting quickly.

_«Go...help the others»_ Matthew told both of them. _«I'll try to heal up as much as I can…»_

"No, I'm staying here." Alfred shook his head.

Arthur quietly nodded.

_«If we don't win»_ Matthew said, looking at Francis, who just blocked an attack from Error before vanishing, _«we'll never wake up into reality. Go help them…»_

"Stay here, Matt," Alfred told him. Then he stood up, took up his sword and ran off to join the others, while Arthur followed suit.

* * *

Once they joined the group, Alfred and Arthur were surprised to see Ivan wielding a scythe as he fought against Error by himself, while Ludwig and Francis backed him up.

"Hey, what's with Ivan's new weapon?" Alfred asked Feliciano, staring at Ivan, who just dodged Error's attack. "It looks new."

"Not sure, but he got it from something," Feliciano answered, shrugging. "It's probably a dropped weapon from a monster he fought alone." Then he saw Arthur behind him and added, "I'm glad you're back to normal."

Arthur nodded. "I want to get that little bastard some payback," he said. "Come on…" He ran ahead without waiting for either of their responses.

* * *

"Oh, so you managed to snap from it," Error said, noticing Arthur joining the group again. "If that's the case, then let's end this." Although he had the same actions as before, this time he went faster. Before anyone could notice, he would disappear into nothing.

"Okay, now this looks impossible," Francis said, looking behind him towards Alfred, who quietly remained focused. But without warning, his vision blurred towards his right and suddenly found himself knocked down to the ground, his HP bar quickly draining to zero.

"No, not you, Francis!" Feliciano yelled, rushing towards him. Yet he ended up the same fate. He landed on the ground with his HP, which was already less than half, depleting until it was only a sliver left.

"Don't!" Francis yelled back at him, before his body glowed blue and shattered into fragments.

At the same time, Feliciano felt something sharp impaling through him and his vision blurred. He saw his body glowing into a blue colour.

"Damn it," he muttered angrily, before he also disappeared.

"No!" Ludwig and Arthur yelled. Enraged, they tried to rush at Error, who suddenly reappeared, only to end up with many slashes on their bodies and their HP quickly depleting.

"I told you already," Error told them. "You won't last long."

It wasn't long after Yao is attacked and disappeared into fragments.

"It's only the two of us and Matt," Alfred said to Ivan.

"This time you're gone!" Error yelled, suddenly appearing behind Ivan and stabbing him with his katana as much as he could until his body is riddled with glowing red dots. And with one more slash, Ivan's body shattered into pieces. He turned to Alfred, who was the only one standing.

"Now it's like before, except without your friends." He pointed his katana at him, who still hasn't said a word. "You let them die right in front of you...just like before. You left them behind because all you care about of being the hero. And now that they're gone, let's fight this normally."

"Just shut up and let's fight," Alfred replied, his voice hinted nothing but anger. Then without waiting for his answer, he rushed at him and landed a _«Vorpal Strike»_, which Error easily dodged and countered with _«Tsujikaze»_, which was a straight long-ranged strike. Alfred managed to block it, but with a little recoil from the impact.

Leaping from a good distance, Alfred crossed his sword in front of him, as Error attacked him with _«Hiōgi»_, which was an upward strike, followed by a downward strike and finally with a thrust. Alfred fought back with _«Sharp Nail»_ to block all of them and tried to counterattack _«Savage Fulcrum»_, in which Error blocked with ease and, instead of landing another normal attack, he used _«Ukifune»_ to launch him up.

But before Alfred could notice Error's attack, he was soon thrown up into the air. When Error reached him, he began to land quick and deep slashes upon him, causing Alfred to yell in pain.

"Arrgghh!" He yelled out one slash after another. And within seconds, his body numbed to the point that he dropped his sword, which landed with its blade plunged into the ground. He gazed down to find Matthew, who was nowhere to be found.

_Matt? _He wondered quietly. _Where are you?_

Then he looked up to see Error descending upon him with his katana pointing down at him, ready to strike right into his heart.

"It's over!" Error yelled at him.

Ready to accept death, Alfred closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst. _It really is over _he thought. _Sorry, Kiku, we let you down..._But then he heard a faint familiar voice above him.

«_I'm sorry, Al, but I have to do this…_»

Alfred suddenly threw his eyes open and saw a glowing red circle in the middle on Error's katana. He widened his eyes in terror and anger when he realised who it was…

"Matt," he asked quietly, "_why did you do it_?"

«_I don't really know…it just happened._»

But then he heard a shatter as he fell down to the ground. His eyes filled with fury, yet his body remained numb, he stood up to his knees and crawled toward his sword, which stayed where it was. He heard Error's voice above him, but he ignored it. Gripping his sword tightly, he drew the red blade from the ground and just as Error was about to land a deadly blow, he turned around and thrusted his sword through him using _«Vorpal Strike»_.

"You...killed...all of them," he muttered. He dug the blade deeper into him. "Why...not tell me...where Kiku is...right now?"

"You didn't think I would tell you, did I?" Error asked him back. He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "But then again, you won. Fine, I'll tell you only once."

He told Alfred the possible location of where Kiku is at, along with the possibility that the others are still hanging on, despite what happened to them.

"There I've told you what I know," he told him, once finished. "But don't forget, I'm not exactly a human, so I'll come back again one day…" With that, his body faded into nothing.

But at the same time, everything faded into white. For a moment, Alfred felt like he was floating outside Aincrad, which was now crumbling from the sky. Then it faded into white once more, before he found himself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling.

* * *

Everything around his head felt very heavy with the NerveGear. His eyes gazed around to see where he was and found himself in a hospital room, with the strange instruments around him. As he listened to his steady heartbeat, he tried to move his fingers to get the blood rushing into them and then slowly reached to his head. His entire right arm is connected to the IV, which hung on a pole beside his bed. After struggling to remove the NerveGear from his head, he threw it off and dropped it to the floor. Then he sat up, grabbed his leg and swung it off the bed. He almost fell over to side when he did the same for his other leg.

_I have to find the others _he thought to himself, too exhausted to talk aloud. When he tried to land on the floor, he stumbled and grabbed the IV pole before he fell into his knees. _And Matt...you better be alive._

Holding on the stand, he took a step forward and another and another, until he could manage to walk. His feet still felt heavy while trying to walk, but that didn't matter.

Soon enough, he was gone.

* * *

_SAO arc is now complete. _


	16. Floor Fourteen - ALO arc start

«Floor Fourteen: Back into Reality - Into Another Place»

_A month later…_

"It's great that we're back in the real world, don't you think?"

"Not when Kiku's still missing. Who knows where he is now?"

"Probably off grinding levels like crazy."

"Look, we know Kiku is still out there, but we need to focus on what we need to do."

America groaned in protest. He raised his head and made a waving gesture as he woke up from boredom. "Can't we just shake it off until next year?" he asked. "I'm really bored here…" Then he took out his laptop from his backpack and began to play a certain bullet hell game he heard of about a week before, all while keeping the noise muted.

"This is serious, Alfred," Germany replied, gazing down at the papers in front of him. "We've been gone for over a year and we've missed quite a lot. Our bosses are that concerned they even held their own meeting in our place while we're in Aincrad. And when they were asked why we went missing, it was because of a classified assignment. Although I'm not sure about Kiku's case, since his situation is different than ours…"

France wrote something nonsensical in French on one of his papers as he listened to both of them. "I'm still surprised we're still referring to everyone with their code names or our real names," he said, writing another scribble without any thought. "I thought we're only allowed to say them when there are other people around."

"I don't even want to know how we've been calling each other those names since we landed back here," Arthur agreed. Rather than listening to another dull world meeting that would go nowhere, he began to review some of the spells he had been trying to practise since he returned to reality almost a month previously. "If anything, I'd rather be home and work on my spells...because I know we're really going nowhere in this meeting. Can't we just try to adjust a little?"

"Not when your country is deciding whether you should fend for yourselves or stay with us," Germany warned him. "You do know people there are split part on what to do. At least that's something to concern yourself about…"

Without warning, England stood up. "Stay out of this, Germany," he told him, his tone growing with frustration. "The ones to decide what they should do are my people. Whatever they say, I have to do it." He closed his spellbook shut before adding, "Need I remind you that your friend Italy is still unconscious back in the hospital?"

Germany glared at him for bringing up the last thing he wanted to hear from anyone. Out of everyone who managed to survive the ordeal by managing to defeat Error in Aincrad, only he, America, France and England woke up. The rest remained asleep in a coma, with only their heartbeats to signal the fact that they're still alive. With Kiku's condition unknown, his other close friend is in a similar fate. Thankfully, America and France began to notice where the conversation was heading and stood up as well.

"Guys, fighting isn't going to get us anywhere," France told them, shaking his head. "And yeah, all of us aren't sure if the others are going to wake up." He turned to Germany. "I understand that both of your friends are gone for now, but hopefully we won't find just Italy, but Japan as well, when we find them."

Alfred nodded. "Yeah, and Russia, China and Canada, too," he added. "Of course, Japan has a lot of explaining to do when we see him."

England was silent for a minute until he said, "Let's hope everything that happened finally makes sense."

"Yeah, we all hope so, too," Francis agreed. "What do you say, Germany?"

Like England, Germany stayed silent longer. He wondered if Italy gained enough confidence from his "training" in Aincrad; if that's the case, it would've been much better for him than the usual training he gets from him. Then he recalled the time he was knocked down...maybe that was enough to know that Italy can fend for himself for once.

"Fine, but this time, no one leaves each other," Germany replied, turning to America. "That means you, too."

After some grinning and faint smiles, they felt as if things resolved for now. But then, they heard a faint beeping sound coming from America's laptop, which he left open by accident. Without a word, America rushed back to his seat and logged on to his email as the others crowded behind him to see. And what they found out stunned them even more.

It was an email from Japan, except his email was considered classified.

* * *

"Well, go on, open it," England urged him. America did as he's told.

«_If you're reading this, you're still probably be wondering where I am now. As much as I wanted that question answered as well, I'm sorry to say that I've nothing so far. No matter how hard I try to find out, it's impossible. The security is too strong even for myself to break through without compromising my position to the whole world and risking it to that chance. But I can tell you this: everything that happened in Aincrad had everything to do with what's going on in my country, something that I got myself into that my boss never knew from the start._

«_So with that, I'm sorry that I got all of you into this mess. I wonder if Alfred told you about Laughing Coffin. But if not, I'll keep this as short as possible. It's a guild which encourages player killings within Aincrad; more or less an equivalent of an organised crime syndicate consisting of players that target certain players, usually the weak ones that make the easy target for them. Since the NerveGear would literally kill a player once they die, the guild uses that to their advantage. In a typical game, that would be okay, if player killing would allow players to revive; Sword Art Online has none of that. I'm sure by now you might know where I'm going with this and understand why I was in Aincrad in the first place. _

«_While I was in Aincrad, I met a certain high-levelled player who goes by as Kirito. Some of the players know him as The Black Swordsman. He knows a little bit about Laughing Coffin, but the rest I don't know much. The last I heard from him was that he has a friend named Agil that runs both a bar and a cafe in Japan. It almost similar to what Agil does in Aincrad; he also runs the same thing here, I think. That might be where he is; he told me that Agil's wife took her husband's place while he was trapped in the game. I don't know where it's exact location, so I trust that you'll find it yourselves. _

«_Oh, and a word about Kirito. He's a bit proud and somewhat impulsive, but I suppose that's because he had been in the game longer than I am so that feeling he earned from there is probably still lingering. Although if you're nice to him, he might open up. Of course, do be gentle when bringing up about Laughing Coffin. It's not a topic he wanted to bring up outside the virtual world...but still, if he tells you everything he knew, you might end up getting the general idea._

_As for me, I think there's something going on, it's just that someone or something is hiding the fact that…_»

The rest of the letter were followed by codes, in which America later admitted defeat in trying to break them. "They're way too complex for me to decode," he explained.

"You don't think that we should find this Kirito person first, right?" France asked, shrugging. "But from what I remember, Japan has a huge population."

"And it's an island, too," America agreed. "But that's no reason to find him. They know much about what's going on as much as Kiku. And since Kiku told us of where they might be, that's at least a good start for us. Who knows, maybe they're like us whose friends haven't woken up yet."

"Let's start with his friend, Agil," England added, pointing at the screen. "Kirito said that he runs a bar in the country. How about you type that in?"

Soon enough, America opened up his browser and typed in "Agil's bar", which had no results.

"I know we're supposed to find its location," America began, after 10 minutes of failed results, "but how in the world can we find it?" He stood up and walked out to get food; it was already past noon when their "meeting" was long finished.

"Do you think we should read the letter again?" Germany suggested England, who took over America's seat. While America was busy looking up results and France kept track of the searches done so far, Germany had been busy preparing to make a report about the day's meeting and hasn't said much other than muttering things under his breath about "the current happenings".

"How about I type "Agil's bar and cafe"?" England muttered to himself and typed over the words and hit Enter.

Rather than what it said, the place was called Dicey Cafe; the description matched some of the search keywords. Next to the result was the location on the map as well as the address. England decided to write it down. When America returned with food for himself and the others, he saw that someone, likely England, went over to his seat and did the search.

"I wrote the address down, so we would know where to go once we're there," England said, holding up the piece of paper. "The question is...are we leaving tomorrow?"

"Wait, wait," Germany interrupted, "you mean right now? How about the others? Do we just leave them here?"

"Yeah, England," France agreed, turning to England with a worried look. "If we go to Japan now, how many time zones do you think we have to cross through? And almost all our stuff are in America's house anyway, since whatever is going to happen will involve our NerveGear."

"Okay, how about this?" America suggested, raising his hand. "Let's have one more day here to prepare everything and then we go to Japan by dawn. Although we might start learning some basic phrases for a start, since I'm sure the people we'll meet might not speak English."

"Kinda ironic that you only know them from watching Japanese cartoons," England replied, sarcastic as he crossed his arms. "Alright, then. Let's get out of here and starting packing up. I think we should visit the guys at the hospital one more time. I can't expect them to wake up, but at least they know where we are and there wouldn't be any worries."

* * *

"Matt…" America muttered quietly, gazing down at Canada, who remained unconscious. He could hear his deep breathing as he slept, along with the steady beep of his heart beat. Then without thinking, he took Canada's hand and held it tight. "We'll make sure you, Yao and Ivan wake up. That's a promise." Afterwards, he released his hand and walked out of the room, where he saw Germany and France waiting for him after visiting the neighbouring room where Russia and China slept. England already left Canada's room before America did and found him leaning back on the wall with his arms crossed.

Despite having managed to survive the death game, Canada was nearly close to death after happened in Aincrad. Only England and America knew it; Germany and France later found out after explaining it to them after one of their recent world meetings. However, when America told England about Canada's heroic act to protect Alfred from Error's killing blow during one of their meeting's breaks, he was clearly distraught.

"That's no excuse to let him go off like that," he told him. "He may be invisible to Error, but he could still die, you know."

"But still," America insisted, "we all would've died if he didn't do it. Error would've noticed something was off and if he finds Matt, he could've killed him that easily."

"Let's just hope he really is alive." With that, England walked off. But he stopped to gaze over at him.

"But if Matt never wakes up," he warned, "then I'll _never_ forgive you…"

* * *

"You okay there?" France asked America, after an awkward silence around them. "You haven't said anything since you left the room."

America shook his head. "It's just that I remembered what happened," he replied. "It's nothing really."

"If you say so…" France said, shrugging.

_Better not tell them what went between me and Arthur_ he thought quietly, as he followed them outside.

"Come on," Arthur chided them, already at the entrance. "We better be lucky that we managed to find seats on the plane at the last minute. Let's not miss the flight."

* * *

In another place, a certain trio of characters woke up in a dark place. Their very first thought was that they're still stuck in Aincrad, but something felt off; the surroundings were filled with stars.

"Hey, where are we?"

"Are we still in the game?"

A pause, followed by another person asking "Matthew, is that you?"

"Yeah, I can finally talk out loud…And this is…?"

"It's Feli. It's nice that there's someone else here, but…"

"Feli? Matt? You're both here, too?"

"Yao?!"

"I'm here. Do any of you know where we are?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out."

"Except it's too dark for us to see. But I can see stars…"

"I see them, too."

"You don't think we're somewhere in the sky, are we?"

"No."

"I wonder if the others made it out…"

"I hope so."


	17. Floor Fifteen

«Floor Fifteen: Dicey Cafe - Meeting Agil First and Then Kirito»

As expected, the five countries began to pack up as much as what they needed for their travel. Since England was the one who wrote down the address to Dicey Cafe, he kept in a safe place in his backpack. America tried to find another console gear similar to NerveGear that's being sold in Japan, since all of them were completely broken to the point that logging inside of it is impossible; not that they would miss being in Aincrad after everything they went through. While he did so, France, Germany and England tried to practise some of the basic Japanese phrases. Before the end of the day, they were already asleep, since they leave for Japan about an hour past midnight and definitely would need to rest before then.

As soon as America's loud and eventually obnoxious alarm tone went off, everyone groaned as they stood up. France was first to rise and quickly began to make food for the others, both something to eat on their way to the airport (a half-hour drive from America's place) and once they reached Japan, in which he added that in Japan's time is around 2:00 pm. Since they all had experience travelling to and from America's place, they knew what he meant right away...although Italy or France brings food whenever the European countries, including Russia, cross the Atlantic pond. China and Japan would do the same whenever they cross the Pacific lake, with some jet lag as well.

After the dreaded long lines, checking in their luggage, showing their papers and tickets, waiting for boarding time and all the usual travelling routines, they finally arrived in Japan. But too tired to talk to one another, they decided to check in at a nearby hotel for an overnight stay. And there they went to sleep until everyone feels less groggy by waking up one by one.

While waiting for the others to wake up, America and Germany went out to get food.

"You know, I haven't asked anyone this," America began, as he took a small pack of dango and mochi, "but what was he doing that time, before all this happened?"

Germany didn't understand this at first, but when he mentioned Japan, he knew what he meant. "He didn't really say much," he answered. "But he looked concerned, maybe frightened...I think he went there to see something."

"Well, being a country, you don't think his boss sent him there for a reason, do you?"

"Do you remember what you said that day...when he didn't show up for a meeting...and China mentioned that deaths began popping up in huge numbers? Maybe that's why he went missing...to see what those deaths are for."

America gazed at him with surprise. "Maybe it is…" He agreed. He raised a finger. "And yes, I do remember what China said. How can I forget them when I brought it up first?" When Germany didn't answer, he only said, "Come on, let's go back. Everyone's probably awake by now and I think we have more than what we need for a day or two." Then he gazed down at the two small baskets he was carrying, which was completely full of snacks and noodles.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, England was the first to wake up.

_Normally, I would be trying to look up where in the city is Dicey Cafe _he thought. _But I'm not risking getting yelled at by that idiot again...I think I'll just work on my spells until everyone else are awake. _He gazed at the others who were still sleeping. _I get that we go around visiting each other's houses, but having to go to a country sixteen or fifteen hours ahead is like one horrible hangover. No wonder that idiot still isn't used to it, considering he's got more time zones to deal with than everybody else here._ Without a word, he got up, reached for his backpack on the floor, took out his wand and spellbook and began to mutter spells under his breath.

* * *

On their way back to the hotel, Germany realised something.

"Hey, America," he called.

"Yeah?" America asked, gazing his shoulder at him. "What is it?"

"When Russia had that huge scythe with him in Aincrad," Germany wondered, "that wasn't in his inventory, right?"

"What do you mean?" A bit confused, America furrowed his eyebrows.

"Like it was triggered by something. You don't think he's like Japan, having another weapon that wasn't supposed to be there to begin with?"

"Maybe it's a rare drop that he got early on?" America suggested. "Some monsters do it. And now that you mention it, my sword when I came back was a monster drop, too. Ever since I left you guys, China pretty much was the one who had been appraising and enhancing your weapons, so I know what looks like player-made and ones that aren't. I don't know if Russia himself allowed China to appraise that scythe, but chances are I don't think he would."

"Russia carried it like a normal weapon though…"

"It's a little confusing to explain, but from what I've heard from other blacksmiths in Aincrad, player-made weapons and monster-drop ones both need to get upgraded at some point. Player-made weapons tend to break when there's enough damage on it, like a very tough boss would break a player-made sword like a toothpick would. Monster-drop weapons are rare, but they deal more or less damage against enemies, depending on how much damage you want to upgrade it to. Whether or not Russia got the scythe out of a monster drop without us knowing about it, it was enough to knock Error down to the ground, unless…" He paused for a moment.

"Unless he managed to break through the game's system unknowingly and got it there instead," he finished. "Something even I could do…with some limits, of course."

"Sounds like a possibility," Germany guessed, shrugging. He paused. "Although like Japan, Russia is also missing...and who knows what he could do when we're not around."

"I know, but his boss told us not to go into his room," America answered. "Despite that his room is right next to the others. I wonder why…"

"Dunno."

After a minute of awkward silence, America quietly nodded, confirming that the discussion is finished.

And once they reached the hotel, they found that the others were already awake.

* * *

"Ah, finally, you guys are back," England began, noticing them enter the room while he was busy playing practising with his spells. He eyed the snacks sticking out of the plastic bags America was carrying. "Oh, and you bought snacks, too."

"What time did you wake up?" Germany asked.

"Well…" England began. "I woke up first and then him." He pointed at France, who had been reading a dictionary of Japanese words, yet still looked rather groggy. He moved his finger towards America. "Don't tell me those aren't just snacks and a few are something that we can cook," he added.

"It's half of both, so no worries," America answered.

"Can I cook them?"

"No," all three of them replied at the same time.

"I think France, Germany and I can handle it," America added, before England asked for an explanation. Then he turned to Germany. "Right?"

"Sure, yeah," Germany replied, nodding. _Then again, he's one of Japan's friends, so I guess he knows about cooking noodles..._he thought out of random.

"Can we have a little world meeting?" America asked. "I know it's sudden, but it's kinda urgent."

"Uh, okay, sure," France replied. "Not that we have something to do anyway. We're a little bored here."

* * *

"So what is it?" France asked, as they sat down on the floor in a circle.

"You know that Japan said that we have to meet Kirito, right?" America asked them, who quietly nodded. "Well, look at this…" Then he turned his laptop around, revealing to them an article, written in Japanese (and tried translating it in correct English, yet failed) in which it described the death game was finally completed by a mere young player named Kirito.

"You see?" he continued, assuming that they finished reading over the article. "He's definitely the one who actually beat the game...It was never me. Even I think someone else did it that day, too." He closed the laptop and set it beside him, as he gazed at them one by one. "I think Japan and Kirito met at some point. Why else would he let us meet him in person?"

"Kirito and Japan meeting each other in Aincrad?" France wondered. He gazed up at the ceiling and thought for a moment. "Well, Japan's a pretty good RPG player and very experienced at that, too. He probably fought alongside him in the front lines...more or less against the Laughing Coffin."

"Can I ask you something?" Germany asked America, suddenly interested with the conversation. "When you met Japan up there, did he talk to you about it? Or at least mention it? Maybe that's why he told us to meet him there, up in the 75th floor, to tell us that Aincrad isn't just a death game where bosses literally will kill us, but certain players, too."

"It's not that he mentioned it by exact words," America slowly replied. "More like he warned me about it, since they work in an organised way to carry out those killings. He did say that they only target those that look weak in their eyes. In other terms, somewhat under-levelled that stands out from everyone else."

"How could they do that?" France made scowl at the thought of watching a fellow player killing another for no reason. "Why would they do something like that?"

"Maybe it's just for the sake of it," England replied. "I can easily imagine Russia being part of that group. He'll get accepted right away for having evil thoughts."

"Now that you bring up him up," France said, "I have a feeling that scythe of his back in Aincrad wasn't player-made, possibly a monster-drop."

"See, that's what Germany and I thinks on our way back here," America replied, his voice concerned. "Maybe he played around with the game's system and managed to get it from somewhere else. And he looks like his attack is almost on par with mine, too. Maybe even Germany's."

"Let's see of all the people that were controlled by Error in the past," Germany said, "only America and China never had that chance."

"I wonder how that felt like," America wondered.

"It felt empty, like I don't know...you have this personality that doesn't belong to you," France guessed. "Conflicted, confused, a little angry - just everything gray."

"Like all you could ever think of was attack that person standing before you," Germany added. Then he shuddered. "I swear there was nothing in me I can control when I was under his spell…"

America pretended to scratch the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Well, that time you fought with a whip," he muttered. "England with angel wings and a bow. And I don't remember what France had, but I know he had roses he was carrying."

"We heard that," France and England warned him, complete with a glare.

"Anyway, back on the topic," America continued, shaking his head to focus, "if Kirito is the person Japan wants us to meet, I bet knows enough everything that happened in the game before we dove in there." He paused. "No wonder…"

"Yeah," England agreed glumly. "I'm just worried more about Russia than Japan though…"

"He's not easy to predict what he's going to do next," Germany added. "And he and Japan doesn't get along at all either...at least from what he told me back then."

"Oh, that…" France remembered the fact that while he, America and England were busy dealing with his neighbour Germany and Italy, Japan was alone holding off Russia and China. "It's all in past now...I hope."

"Well, we're his closest friends." Germany paused. "And he knows he went too far with it. Italy and I knew what we did made things worse than it already was."

"Let's just hope Russia is still on our side…" France said, before trailing off with a slight shudder. "Who knows what will happen if he's not…"

"So...do you know anything about Kirito, America?" Germany asked him. "I just assumed that since you're a high-level player in SAO, you would know."

But America shook his head in disappointment. "No, I don't know," he replied glumly. "I heard him through rumours though…"

"From the upper floors?" France and England wondered.

"Yeah. He's one of the highest-levelled players in Aincrad from what I can remember. I don't know if Japan is on par with him, since they both have very high stats. Most people refer to him as the Black Swordsman, because of the fact that his outfit is all black and that his main weapon is a black longsword. He's also been in Aincrad since the incident began, only a few months until Japan dove in there. And because I've never met Kirito personally, I don't know him that well...other than Japan. Just another reason why he's telling us to meet him."

* * *

Meanwhile in another place, Italy strolled around to find a way out for quite a while now, yet still failed to find one.

"Hey, Feli," Yao called out somewhere behind him, "I know we all wanted to get out, but can't you take a break for a little bit and sit down?"

"I wanted to," Feliciano replied back, as he sat down behind Yao, "but something tells me that we just ended up like Kiku."

Yao gazed around to see if there was anyone else, consisting of only him, Feliciano and Matthew, who was sleeping. "This may sound like a sudden question to ask you," he began, "but do you think wherever Kiku is right now, Ivan is there?"

Feliciano blinked in surprise. _Ivan is somewhere else with Kiku?_ He thought. _I know Kiku and Ivan aren't exactly "friendly" to each other, even during the world meetings, but having them put together in one place by themselves..._He shook the thoughts of what Ivan might possibly do towards his friend and instead said, "He could be." Then he made a confused face. "What made you think that?"

"Well, for one, he's not in a trapped place like we are in," Yao guessed. His voice turned into a warning tone. "Between you and me, he's _not_ someone you would want to be alone with. No one what he could be thinking next or what he'll do." He paused for a moment and asked, "Do you remember the time in Aincrad, when Ivan had that scythe?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"It didn't looked like it belonged in the game at all," Yao tried to explain, but struggled to find the words. "How should I put this? Maybe he knows something in Aincrad that we don't know. It's not just some "luck" that he got that weapon or something that he wished for; he would've kept it in his inventory to begin with...and who knows when he actually got it."

But Yao suddenly found that Feliciano had fallen asleep. He made a deep sigh and lied down beside Matthew.

_I just hope nothing happened to either one of them...It's not hard to imagine Ivan to do something bad towards Kiku, when in reality they never got along at all._

* * *

When America and the others woke up the next day, since they turned in for the night once their meeting was finished, they went out to find Dicey Cafe. England decided to take the lead, while America tried to navigate them through the busy Japanese streets. Just a little before 10am did they finally find the place, which looked rather different than most bars in the country. For one thing, it looked like a wooden shack from the outside.

"It looks like a family-run place, don't you think so?" America asked the others, who silently nodded in agreement.

"Well, maybe because it's better that way," England guessed, heading towards the entrance. "Come on, let's head inside."

For America, the interior itself reminded him of those Western-styled bars - dimly lit, wooden, old fashioned. Yet it still surprised him that the owner might not even be from Japan…

"Hello, there," a deep, booming voice rang out behind the counter. "How may I help you?"

A dark-skinned young man gave them a small wave to get their attention, which they did. He seemed to be around in his late twenties, maybe early thirties.

But when the group looked at one another to see who would reply in Japanese, Germany took it instead to break the awkward silence.

"Uh, we would like a drink, please," he replied.

"Alright, have a seat," the man said, gesturing them to the seats by the counter. "What would you like?"

"Soda," America answered.

"That's it? Just a soda each?"

"Yes, thank you," Germany responded in Japanese, all while glaring at America for a moment before sitting between France and England.

When the young man brought them a tall glass of soda, he turned around and began to sort the glassware.

"You four don't seem to be from here, aren't you?" he asked them a minute later, still in Japanese.

"No," Germany replied back. "But a friend sent us here...to talk to someone."

The young man turned around. "Who?"

"A person who goes by Kirito," America explained in English. After earning a disapproving look from Germany and the young man for speaking in another language without permission, he continued, "Look, one of our friends was also trapped in Aincrad and met Kirito while there. It wasn't long that we also dove into Aincrad to find our friend there, hoping that he would still be alive. But somehow he managed to complete the game, while we did our own share to do the same on the other side."

After a long silence to take in the information, the young man finally asked them in English, "You mean your friend met Kirito in Aincrad?" The fact that he also spoke another language fluently surprised them more.

"Yes," America replied without hesitation.

But just as the topic was about to take a serious turn, England asked the young man, "Wait, you knew English, too?"

The young man nodded. "Of course. You can call me Agil, if you like," he added, offering his hand to shake. "But if you prefer human names, then I'm Andrew. As for the English, let's just converse in that language for everyone's sake."

"I'm Alfred," America introduced himself. Then he pointed at France - "Francis" - then Germany - "Ludwig" - and England - "Arthur".

"So you're the one our friend refers as Agil, then," Germany said. He paused for a moment. "But how come you speak English quite well?"

"I'm from America, born and raised," Agil explained. He picked up a large glass and began drying it with a washcloth. "But I've been living here in Japan for a while with my wife, who also ran this place while I was trapped in the game." Then while he finished up cleaning up, the countries quietly drank their soda until he was done. He turned around once finished. "So if you came here because your friend told you, there's got to be more than just meeting Kirito, isn't there?"

"Well, kinda," England shrugged at his answer. "Our friend Kiku just told us that he knew Kirito and that we should talk to him about something."

"Does he come here often?" France asked Agil.

"He's a regular here, just to check on what happened to a friend of his," Agil replied. "She was also trapped in the game like you and me, but she never woke up."

"Some of our friends were like that, too!" America suddenly stood up. "Do you know why?"

Agil shook his head. "No, unfortunately, I don't know. I just hope that wherever they are, it's not somewhere dangerous. I know some are slowly waking up after being asleep for a long time...but after everything that happened, especially with the younger ones like Kirito, they have to catch up with their studies while trying to deal with the trauma they've faced in Aincrad."

Silence hung over them for a long time.

"It looks like Kirito has just finished with school for today," Agil said, gazing at the clock. "He should stop by today. And he might give you all the answers you need."

"We'll wait," America replied.

Half an hour later, the door opened and a dark-haired young man of about fifteen or sixteen walked inside. Based on what he wearing, it looked like a typical school uniform.

"Hey, Agil," he chimed in Japanese. Then stopping in his tracks, his gaze moved from Agil to the four young men sitting in front of the counter, who were also staring at him. "Uh, who are they?"

"They say they're Kiku's friends," Agil answered back in the same language. "Somehow Kiku sent them here to talk to you." Then he turned to the four. "This is Kirito," he said to them in English. "Also known in Aincrad as the Black Swordsman."


	18. Floor Sixteen

«Floor Sixteen: World Meeting with Kirito»

"The Black Swordsman...is you?" America asked in English, examining the young man for a moment before sliding off his seat. "I thought it's someone older...you know, around our age."

"Uh, my friend says that he was expecting someone our age to have that title," Germany explained in Japanese, as the young man gave a very confused expression. "I hope that didn't offend you in some way," he quickly added.

The young man shook his head. "It's fine," he replied, still in Japanese. "I'm just surprised that you guys would visit Agil. Normally it's just me and a few others from school…"

"Uh, Kiku sent us here to talk to you," England tried to explain. Like Germany's, his Japanese was just as good. "He said it would help us understand what Kiku and pretty much us got into since the day he went missing."

"By the way, you can call me Kazuto, if you like," the young man said. "But Kirito is fine." He turned to Agil. "I think we have to talk over this at a table. Would that be okay?"

Agil shrugged. "Fine by me," he answered. "I'll leave you in here. But if you need something, let me know." Then without a word, he left the room, leaving the countries and the dark-haired young man alone.

Once they settled down, with Kirito sitting at the head, they began the world meeting...although because Kirito's English isn't as good, he asked Germany to translate it for the others to understand.

"Okay," Kirito began. "So why did Kiku sent you here in Japan? Does it have to with SAO?"

"Well, he told us that you should talk about a guild named Laughing Coffin," England replied. "But I guess you can talk about SAO, if you want to start there."

"How come he hasn't told you himself? It's not really something I want to talk about, even if we all got out of SAO alive."

"Well, he would've, if weren't for a certain enemy to show up," America grumbled. "Kiku was already gone before we could ever reach him."

"When was this? Not too long before I cleared the game?"

"We're at the 74th floor. We're supposed to meet him a floor above that, but something got in our way."

"So at the same time, my friends and I were trying to clear the 75th Floor boss," Kirito muttered. Then he spoke up. "What got you guys in the way?"

"A familiar enemy named Error," France answered. "He looks like Kiku, except less human. Like an AI, since he belonged inside a computer...or something."

_Like Heathcliff? _Kirito thought. _He uploaded his brain online when he killed himself. Maybe this Error isn't like him...maybe Kiku's other self. But Error didn't belong in Aincrad...Could he be a virus of some sort? Whatever he was, he's similar to Heathcliff._

"And you fought Error?" he asked them.

"Yeah, we thought we cleared the game when Alfred managed to defeat him," France explained, pointing at America. "But I don't think it was him."

"Uh," Kirito began, "I was the one who cleared the game. It's a long story on how that happened."

The countries looked at one another in surprise.

"So not only were you named as The Black Swordsman," England said, "but you're the one who cleared the game?"

Kirito quietly nodded.

"That's impressive," America was stunned. "Kiku wouldn't be as stunned to find out. Both of you might be two of the highest-levelled players in Aincrad." He paused. "Kiku's already powerful enough when I dueled with him."

"What level were you?" Kirito asked him.

"I think around 86, but I was 93 by the game's end. My guess is that Kiku is about the same as yours."

"I was Level 96," Kirito explained. "As for Kiku, he was going to meet me up there in the 75th floor to help out...but he never came. I think before he disappeared, he was about to reach my level. He was very close to completing level 95." He turned to the others. "How about the rest of you?"

"Well, I was about level 89," England replied. "Matt has 84, Ludwig was 87, Francis and Yao are both 88, Feli was 89. Ivan had the second highest, which was 90."

"What happened to the others?" Kirito wondered. "There are only four of you here."

"That's what we're trying to figure out," America replied. "When you finished the game, some of our friends didn't wake up. We just assumed that they're still in the game, or just transferred somewhere else. There's no way for them to return to Aincrad, if that world's already gone."

"They can't go back at all," Kirito said, shaking his head. "But by now, almost everyone would've been awake. I know it takes time for the players to wake up, but it's been a month. And one of my friends is still asleep."

Silence hung quietly above them for a long time, until France spoke up.

"So changing to another subject," he said, "what do you know about Laughing Coffin?"

Kirito gazed up at the ceiling. "They're a guild known for killing players within Aincrad," he began. "Normally if you break one of the game's rules, you would get an orange sign above your character. But Player Killing is equivalent to murder, unless you risk turning into a "red" player. They're almost like an organised crime group, choosing certain guilds and players to attack and kill. If anything, the players that belong to that guild are criminals. But since the guild itself isn't registered in the system, the players aren't registered as well and can blend in with other guilds, if they choose to."

While the countries took their time to take in all of the information given, Kirito added, "Maybe that's why Kiku went into the game in the first place."

"Yeah, I thought so, too," America agreed. "He mentioned something about investigating the murders happening around Aincrad last time I talked to him."

"Well, since he arrived in the game a little later than when the death game actually started," Kirito suggested, "he only found out about it because the number of dead players rose at a drastic rate. Of course, for everyone, that's really worrying."

"No wonder Kiku went there in the first place," Germany realised. He sighed quietly. "And because we're worried on what might happened to him, we got dragged into it without even knowing it." He turned to Kirito. "So what do you think might've happened to the other players if they still haven't woken up?" he asked.

Kirito shrugged. "I don't know myself," he answered. "But it's like what Alfred said earlier. They consciousness might've transferred somewhere else, one that would involve Full-Dive." He paused for a moment as he thought about something. "I asked Agil if he could find something that's very similar to SAO a few days ago," he said to them. "Maybe if I ask him, it might give us a lead." Turning around, he called Agil, who arrived after a few moments.

"Kirito, you called?" he asked him. "I was helping my wife about something upstairs. I could hear your voice, but barely."

"Yeah, you know about what I asked, right?" Kirito asked back. "Did you find something?"

"Well..." Agil replied, but his voice trailed off. He ran out of the room once more and returned carrying a small book-sized object, which he placed on the table before Kirito. "I found this."

It was a game copy called ALfheim Online. On the cover were trees along with two winged humans flying under a full moon and the game title underneath.

"So you found another game?" Kirito asked. "That's great...I suppose."

"Well, if you remember the email I sent you," Agil replied, "that's where she is."

Kirito quickly reached for his phone, opened the email and scrolled down to one of the pictures, which had a character resembling Asuna in it. He could barely see it, but he noticed that she had a pair of wings on her back. He looked at the cover of the game and at Agil.

"Do you think she's in there?" he asked.

"We won't know until we find out," Agil said. "As for that picture, that's taken inside a castle on top of the World Tree, which located inside the game."

"What, we can fly there?" America wondered out loud.

"Yeah, but the thing is that it's hard to control. But like SAO, player killing is allowed...except this time, you don't die in real life. But unlike SAO, there are no levels and the way to "level up" is by battling against other players, in which they belong to one of nine races. And the goal is to see who will reach the top of the World Tree first. Until now, no one had done so, as the flight system has a certain limit."

"That's probably where our friends are," Germany guessed in a low voice. He spoke up to ask Agil, "Does it run on a certain console?"

"No idea," he replied in Japanese, so that Kirito would understand. "Unless your NerveGear was destroyed once you logged out of SAO, you have to get another console. It's called Amusphere, which is a lot lighter than the NerveGear."

"My NerveGear might still work," Kirito said. "But I have to try it first." He took the copy off the table. "Can I have this copy, if that's okay with you?"

"If it's just to install the game," Agil replied, "that's fine. But bring it back to me afterward."

"I will. And I promise to bring her back, too."

"You better." He looked over his shoulder and realised that it's already late. "And I think that's it for today," he added. "Time to close up shop."

Kirito left first, but told the countries that he'll wait for them inside the game, while the countries themselves had to find a place to buy Amusphere and the game. Eventually they managed to get ahold of exactly four Amusphere consoles, which is a helmet that consists of two overlapping rings that resemble a pair of goggles. Compared to the NerveGear, the Amusphere is much lighter in weight and more stylish.

Once they returned back to the hotel, the four of them unpacked the package containing their Amuspheres, while America quickly connected each one into his laptop, which loaded the game. He closed it shut when the game was finished installing.

"Ugh, it's almost like we're going back to Aincrad again," England said, as he slipped on his Amusphere over his eyes while lying down.

"Except we don't die this time," America replied, grinning.

"Yeah, that's true," Germany agreed.

"Come on, let's go meet Kirito," France added. "He should be waiting for us by now."

"Alright," America said. "Counting down from three…"

_3…_

_2…_

_1…_

«LINK START!»

After going through the usual login information (meaning they had to register as completely new players, since their SAO data was already destroyed), which was almost the same as SAO, they saw a rush of colours coming towards them and everything faded into white.

* * *

Meanwhile, Yao and the others had just woken up. The sun was already up from a distance.

"Morning," Feliciano greeted from Yao's right. He sat up and stretched his limbs. "Had good sleep?"

Yao shook his head. "No," he replied. "My back hurts.."

"Hey." Turning around, he saw Matthew still lying down beside him.

Without warning, Yao stood up and began walking around in a circle. Now that there's light, he wanted to figure out where they are right now. And hopefully, find a way to escape from here.

_This isn't the real world _he thought quietly, ignoring the dazed looks from the other two. _We would've been at a hospital somewhere, but we're not. Wherever we are, I'm sure we're not in Aincrad anymore…_Stopping in his tracks, he faced them once more, his face filled with anxiety.

"I think someone or something from outside put us in here," Yao finally admitted. "And this place...it's meant for us to be in. Like a cage…"

"Uh, why would someone put us in here?" Feliciano asked. He stood up. "Do you think they want us for something important?"

Yao shook his head. "I won't say that I'm not sure," he said. "But I have a feeling they're using us as bait…"

"For what?" Matthew wondered, slowly getting up. He walked around for about a minute. "To get the others to come here or…?"

"Well, by now some of the players should be awake now, but I think some are like us. We never woke up and instead ended up here."

"Do you think Kiku is like us, too?"

"Probably."

But before Feliciano could agree, they heard a familiar voice.

"You know," a child like voice said, "I'm not surprised that the three of you know where you are now. Actually, Kiku isn't that far from you three. In fact, I'm about to visit him...unless I come there first." Then the tone changed into a low whisper. "_Until then, behave…_"

When the voice was gone, Yao turned to Matthew. "You don't think that person...just now..?" He tried to speak, but couldn't go on.

"That was Ivan," Matthew guessed. His brows furrowed. "Why does it seem like he's not trapped somewhere like us?"

"Do you think he knows something we don't?" Feliciano asked. He scratched his head. "He mentioned Kiku's name…"

"I don't really know what to think right now," Yao said. "It's a little too much to take in." He faced both of them and whispered, "But I think Ivan isn't like himself. Just try not to provoke him. Who knows what he'll do to us, when we don't even have our weapons anymore?"

Both Matthew and Feliciano, just as the door before them slowly opened, revealing a tall figure approaching towards them.

It was Ivan, who was no longer wearing his clothes from SAO. He only wore a high-collared, dark red longcoat with black trousers and light brown knee-high boots. Behind him was a pair of dark red wings, which looked trapezoidal.

"Hello," he said. "Do you like it here so far?" He took a step towards Yao, who extended his arms in front of Matthew and Feliciano. "Sorry if there's nothing in here, but you can just ask."

"Why are you here?" Yao asked as calm as he could. As much as he wanted to glare at Ivan, he couldn't take any chances, even if that temptation is slowly growing in him.

"To see how you all are doing." Ivan made a small smirk. "By now, the others should be here looking for us. But if they're going to take their time, I'm afraid it will be too late by the time they get here."

Yao didn't say anything this time. And Ivan began heading out.

"Well, it's nice seeing you again," he said. Without turning around, the door closed shut.

Once Ivan was gone, Yao lowered his arms, walked the two and gazed at the world outside.

"Yeah, someone or something is using Ivan," he muttered to himself. "We need to think of getting out here as soon as possible. I just hope the others can make it here…"


	19. Floor Seventeen

«Floor Seventeen: Another Full-Dive - Into Alne»

Once they confirmed their sense test and their respective language selection, they received a message:

«Welcome to ALfheim Online»

Unlike in SAO, where they all woke up in a meadow outside the «City of Beginnings», they found themselves at a dark room. Of course, since Amuspheres are worn by just one person, everyone stood in a separate room. They saw a small hologram showing different people and a holographic keyboard before them, in which they typed in their human names along with their gender. Afterwards, they scrolled through the many different player types, or rather, ALO's race and picked a race that would resemble more or less their previous role from SAO. They're told by the game that their appearance will be random once they're inside, as well as being transferred into their respective races' hometown territory.

Afterwards, everything faded into white.

However, as they were about to reach their races' territory, the game froze and began to break down...only to find themselves deep into a forest.

* * *

Meanwhile in a brightly lit room, a dark-haired young man had woken up. He looked around and found himself alone inside a large birdcage, which probably is hung by something. Sitting up from his spot, he saw that where he was is far above the ground. He saw a grey, rather large and strange looking tree trunk from below, quickly leading to a stunning revelation.

_I'm in a birdcage that's hung from a tree?!_ he thought. He gazed down at his attire, which was a plain dark blue dress, with the sleeves hanging from his shoulders and the front of the skirt which stopped at his thighs. _And what is this? Why would someone put me in a dress like this? _Then to make matters worse, his legs wore nothing but thigh high stockings and his feet only plain sandals. He had no weapons on him and anywhere; _No wonder there's nothing in here _he thought glumly. _When this is all over, I'm going to wear something more decent! _

_But for now, I have to play the part...as a damsel in distress. _

_Alfred...everyone…_

_Please hurry._

* * *

It was already nighttime when Arthur finally opened his eyes. As he sat up, Alfred and Francis were nowhere around him. He guessed that he and the others woke up in a forest within the game. It wasn't long until he found a red-clothed figure already standing up a small distance from where he was.

"Hey," he called. Then he found out it was Ludwig.

"Finally awake, huh?" Ludwig asked back. His outfit consisted of nothing but red-plated armour, which covered much of his body. An ordinary sword hung from his left waist. But what stood out was the fact that his hair is now dark red, instead of the usual blond he had in SAO. When he noticed Arthur's stifled expression at this, he knew what it was and told him, "I know. I guess when we picked our races here, some of them would have a default hair colour. Even you have it."

"What?!" Arthur was stunned at this. He placed a hand on top of his head, but found nothing unusual. Then he used the same gesture from SAO by swiping his account window open, but to no avail. Giving up, he gazed at Ludwig. "Okay…" he said. "So what do I look like?"

"Well…" Ludwig began, examining him up and down. "For one thing, you look a lot more different than I am."

Arthur was styled in black. He wore a cloak above a dark jacket and trousers underneath, along with ankle length boots of the same colour. There was a plain longsword strapped behind him. However, like Ludwig, he also had a different hair colour, only for Arthur it was black. If he was recognisable in SAO with blond, it would be the opposite in ALO.

"And you're wearing nothing but black," Ludwig finished, shrugging.

"I thought if you wear the cloak, that counts as someone that can use spells," Arthur explained. "It said «Illusion Magic» anyway. That's almost the same as what I do, besides summoning."

Since he had no idea how to respond on that, Ludwig changed the subject. "My race is «Salamander»," he said. "How about you?"

"«Spriggan»," Arthur replied. He looked around them. "Where do you think the other two are?"

Ludwig shrugged. "No idea. Let's look for them before we can decide what to do next."

"Alright."

But then as they took a few steps forward, they heard something shuffling behind the bushes. Without delay, they went to check to see who it was.

It was Francis.

Upon seeing him, Arthur quickly covered his mouth to prevent himself from laughing. As for Ludwig, his expression remained calm.

"Did you just wake up?" he asked.

Francis nodded. "Yeah," he replied. He glared at Arthur, who was still restraining himself. "And what's up with him?"

"You look even more different we are," Ludwig answered.

"But you two are just like me," Francis argued. "Arthur's got black hair and you have red hair." He paused for a moment. "Now that I thought about it," he continued, "what _do _I look like to you two?"

Like he did with Arthur, Ludwig surveyed him. Francis had light blue hair and wore a two piece outfit which consisted of trousers and a sleeveless, high-collared jacket. He also had a pair of light blue gloves that goes beyond his elbows, leaving his shoulders exposed. On his left side was a rapier.

"Your outfit is mostly light blue," Ludwig noticed. "And you have light blue hair. No wonder Arthur is trying not to laugh at you...you look rather flashy for a character."

"Except that's not the first I've worn something that stood out," Francis replied, crossing his arms. "And I chose «Undine». So three down, one more person to find. And I'm already expecting Alfred's going to be just like us…"

Arthur and Ludwig quietly nodded in agreement before Francis decided to lead the search. No one talked among them as they went together deep in the forest. But just as they stopped in their tracks, they heard something coming from their left. They quickly drew their weapons out and faced towards where the noise is.

"Come out of there!" Arthur yelled.

"Are you sure we want to fight?" Ludwig asked with concern. "It's only been a few minutes and we're already close to fighting something."

"He's got a point," Francis agreed. "Don't you think it's a little early?"

"Well, what if we die here?" Arthur asked them. "Like last time…" Despite having survived the game, he couldn't bear thinking about what happened there. Fighting monster fearing that one blow meant certain death; taking two roles to support the party while trying to contribute as much damage as he could. Of course, he was concern that Alfred might go off on his own again.

But the figure didn't stop coming towards them, who drew closer to each other and keeping an eye.

"It's me, you guys," the voice finally spoke.

Francis quickly recognised who it belonged to. "Alfred?" he asked, lowering his weapon and returned it to his sheath.

As it turned out, he was right. Alfred stood before them. His clothing were mostly purple; he wore knee-high boots, a longcoat and a light purple breastplate. To match his outfit, his hair is purple. But as it was in SAO, he didn't wear his glasses (since Amuspheres already resembled a pair of eyeglasses).

"Whoa, we look different!" Alfred yelled out in excitement. "Uh…I think that's kinda weird."

"You think so, too?" Arthur asked. "I have black hair, for crying out loud!" Then he lowered his hood to prove his point. His usual short and spiky blond hair has changed into a pitch black colour. "How can you say 'kind of'?"

"Dunno. I chose «Imp». But out of everyone, Francis has the most dramatic change."

"Which I'll take as a compliment," Francis finished, crossing his arms. "Can't we just go find Kirito? He's probably out of the forest by now and been waiting for us."

* * *

Suddenly, he heard the door open and a tall figure walked inside, wearing a long red coat and dark brown trousers and boots underneath.

"Hello, Kiku," it called out.

It was Ivan.

Upon realising who he was, Kiku's eyes glared at him. "What is it this time?" he demanded, crossing his arms. "Another dress for me to wear?"

Without a word, Ivan reached something into his coat pocket and took out a large piece of cloth. Then he swiped open his menu and after making a few selections, the cloth turned into a dress. The skirt would cover all his legs this time, unlike the one Kiku is currently wearing. He handed it over to him.

"Wear it," Ivan said. To prove his point further, he smiled cheerfully. When Kiku refused to move, his tone quickly shifted. "You wouldn't want to know what happens if you refuse, yes?"

Kiku grabbed the cloth through instinct and did as he's told, all while glaring straight at Ivan's purple eyes. "One day, you're going to pay for what you did," he said, slipping on the new dress. "Because I know...deep down, you're _not_ Ivan."

Ivan didn't say anything. Instead, he turned around and headed for the entrance, but stopped for a moment to face Kiku again.

"I'll be waiting, then" was his only reply, before finally shutting the door.

* * *

"Oh, there you are," Kirito said, noticing them. Like Arthur, he picked «Spriggan», mostly because it was styled in black; it was a habit for him to wear black even in SAO. But he wasn't alone, as the four had expected, and there was a young woman standing nearby.

"Who's the girl?" Alfred asked, as he saw the young woman glare at him.

"I'm Leafa, a «Sylph»" she said. She looked at them with narrowed eyes. "I suppose you already know who Kirito is."

"Yeah, we just met him offline...uh…" Alfred tried to meet Leafa's gaze, but his instincts tell him not to. "Do you know each other?"

Kirito and Leafa looked at one another and turned away, with the latter's arms crossed.

"No, not really," Leafa replied. "He just happened to come across our way. A fellow player and I were fleeing from a group of «Salamander» players, but…." Then after gently asking them to sit down for a minute, she told them what happened before the four reached them. "And he shows up and single-handed took down the remaining three," she finished. "For a new player, that's kinda surprising for me."

Remembering that Kirito was the most powerful player in SAO, the four decided to keep to themselves about bringing SAO up. Not that they could trust Leafa yet, along with the question of whether she was a survivor or not.

"Yeah, it is," Arthur agreed.

"Now that I've already introduced myself," Leafa added, facing them one by one, "it's your turn."

"He's Arthur," Alfred began, pointing at him. "Then Ludwig and Francis...and me, Alfred."


	20. Floor Eighteen

_If you prefer reading my author's notes, I guess you can scroll down to the end. I actually have something to say that's going to be really important, since this concerns about my story and probably me as a writer here. (Sorry in advance for the bullshit writing…) At this point, I'll try to get rid of the author notes from the past previous chapters, since it's so cluttered with whatever._

_Otherwise, if not, do the usual drill. But still it's better to read what I said at the end._

* * *

«Floor Eighteen: Grand Quest - Distant Hacking»

"So what brings you here in ALO?" Leafa asked, rather excited to meet new players at this time. She wondered if Recon would show up soon as well.

"We've heard about the Grand Quest and thought we might try it out," Alfred replied.

Leafa smiled faintly. "You do know there's a limit on how much you can fly, right?" She reminded them. "There's a reason why it's called that way…" But when she saw the blank expressions from the others, she sighed and said, "Alright, I guess I'll explain them in more detail. Let's sit down in a circle, shall we?"

When everyone settled down, she took a deep breath. "Okay, let's see," she began. Then she pointed to something at her left (the countries' right side), in which there are lights gathered in one place and close by was a silver-coloured spiral trunk. "You see those lights? That's Alne, the capital and also the city within Alfheim. All of the nine home locations of the races surround that city, as well as the World Tree. That silver spiral behind Alne? That's where the Grand Quest is. Rumour has it that if a player manages to complete the dungeon, they will be rewarded with unlimited flight to the player's respective race. A player's wings will get tired after flying non-stop. Not only will they get unlimited flight, that player will have the rare chance of meeting the Fairy King Oberon, who rarely left the World Tree." She let the others take in all of the information given so far, until Alfred spoke up.

"So whoever completes the Grand Quest, that person's race will get special treatment?" he asked Leafa. "And just how tall is the World Tree anyway?"

"They're pretty much the ruling race of Alfheim," Kirito guessed. "As for the World Tree's height, it should be high enough that you could see all of the surrounding places around it...and Alne will be just a speck underneath."

"And until now, no one has completed it?" Ludwig wondered. "As far as the flight limit is concerned, don't you think it looks too good to be true?" He furrowed his brows as he thought about it.

Francis turned to him. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Everyone would do anything just to get non-stop flying around here."

"No, not that. For something that high-staked, there's a chance that once you're in it, you're trapped until you die in there."

"Yeah, but this isn't SAO," Arthur said. "You can only die in here."

"I still think completing it is almost impossible," Ludwig replied firmly, crossing his arms.

Leafa stood up. "I think we should start thinking about coming up with a plan," she said, "if we're ever going to try to complete Grand Quest."

Francis followed suit. "I'm thinking...when you log out of ALO," he began, "what happens to our bodies? Does it fade out or something?"

"Normally, when you leave ALO, your body just becomes empty and falls asleep. You know how a body reacts when it has no soul, right? It doesn't move, think, anything…"

"So we can't just log out in an open field?" Alfred asked. "Because someone can just come and steal your stuff?"

"Pretty much," Leafa answered, nodding. "That's why we're going to try book a room for the night. Come on, let's go." Then she spread her green wings out behind her and with one small leap, she flew off to a nearby town.

"That's nice and all," Arthur called out, just as Kirito was about to take off as well. "But do you know how to get us off our feet and actually fly?"

"Yeah, none of us haven't tried it yet," Ludwig agreed.

Kirito stopped himself and turned around. _Oh, yeah, _he thought, _I don't think they got the gist of flying yet. I would've heard them if they were…_ "Uh...well, trying to grab something with one hand and there should be a remote controller," he said, trying to demonstrate it to them. "I'm still trying to get used to it myself, so I'm just like you guys."

* * *

Once they finally began to fly, and still holding on to the assist controller, the countries followed Kirito out of the forest and into a nearby town, where Leafa stood waiting by the entrance.

"Yeah, it takes some getting used to," she explained, noticing Arthur and even Ludwig nearly stumbling on their landing. "But once you get the hang of it" - she turned to Francis and Alfred, both of whom quickly achieved it - "you might want to try flying with just the muscles of your wings. And I'm telling you it's a lot harder than you think."

"Okay, we'll remember that," Alfred replied, grinning. "So where do we all stay?"

"This is actually a Slyph territory," Leafa warned them, casting a side glance into the city. "Other than me, you can't attack the Slyph players here…but they can attack you." She turned to Ludwig. "This might seem a little unfair, but Salamanders aren't allowed here."

"What?!" Ludwig yelled out. "Why not?" He looked down at his hands, which was completely ablaze.

"Besides getting your hands on fire without warning, Salamanders and Slyphs don't get along with each other. We're on a war, you see."

Ludwig shook his hands off until his hands were no longer on fire. "Let me guess," he answered, "it's over territory?"

"More than that," Leafa replied back, "we have this competition over resources as well. And that our first Slyph Lord was killed by the Salamander's leader."

"So what do we do?" Alfred asked her. "We can't just leave him here and get robbed by the other Slyphs. If the rivalry is that tense, he might end up getting killed out here."

"Well, I can't just betray my own race over one Salamander!" Leafa lashed out. "If someone finds out I'm sheltering an enemy, _I'm _the one who's going to die!" Then she tried to calm down for a minute. "Okay, maybe we can cover up that grab of yours and disguise you as the other Spriggan," she suggested. She faced Arthur, who was wearing a black cloak over his outfit. "We can use the cloak to wear it on him." She pointed at Ludwig.

"But I'm shorter than him," Arthur said, removing his cloak and handing it over to Leafa. "Here."

After muttering a spell on it, Leafa gave it to Ludwig, who quietly placed it over his armour. She examined him and added, "I think you can remove your armour, so it wouldn't be as bulky underneath."

Ludwig did as he was told and pulled up the hood over his head. "So am I a Spriggan yet?" he asked them.

"Just try not to move so much," Francis replied. "But yeah, you're one tall Spriggan."

"Thanks a lot, Francis." With that, Ludwig crossed his arms, while also grabbing onto his cloak to prevent it from flying open. "I'm sure no one would notice...I hope."

Yet some of the Slyphs they crossed along the way took notice of the giant Spriggan walking alongside two other players of the same race, an Imp and and Undine. But since Leafa told them that the inn they're staying for the night was close, it wasn't long until they reached it. In fact, it was only a couple of blocks from the entrance itself. She also decided to pay for the lodging, just for that night.

"Alright, I've picked three rooms alongside each other, which took some negotiations to make," Leafa explained to them, as they stood in front of their assigned rooms. "So one of you will share a room with two other people, while I get one for myself...for obvious reasons."

"I guess I'll stay with Arthur and Alfred," Kirito suggested. "Is that okay with you two?"

Stunned, Arthur quietly nodded. _At least I'm not sharing with Francis…_he thought quietly.

"When are we going to meet again?" Alfred asked.

Leafa paused for minute and replied, "I think we should be here sometime at 3:00 in the afternoon. We're only allowed to stay here until 3:30, so we should be gone before the time is up. I have other activities in the morning and won't be online until then. Sound good?"

"Yeah, so we'll meet me tomorrow at 3:00," Kirito said. With one hand, he swiped open his player menu and searched for the logoff option. Relieved that it finally exists, he swiped the menu away.

"As for Ludwig," Leafa warned, just as she was about to close the door in her room, "you might want to keep the disguise until we leave tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright, I will," Ludwig answered. "Good night."

"Night." Then without a word, she closed the door.

"Good night, guys," Alfred said, opening the door to their room and heading inside. "Let's hit the sack."

* * *

"Wow, it's nice being back in the real world, huh?" America asked the other three, as they also got up and began heading for bed. He had an odd feeling being back in his own body again, especially since this was the second time it happened.

"Yeah, it kinda is," Germany agreed, "but also weird."

"The first time is when the death game is over," England added. He placed his hands behind his head and gazed up at the ceiling. "But yeah, I admit it's just like the first time."

"Only it's not if you don't wake up," France said, rolling over to face Alfred. "How do you think the others are doing?"

"It's almost like they're just trapped between ALO and SAO," America thought aloud. "While you can log out of the former, the latter's game system won't let you."

"Just like a rock and a hard place," Germany answered.

"Exactly."

"Well, let's get some rest," England said. "Night, everyone."

* * *

Nothing much happened during the morning, but by the afternoon, things suddenly took a turn when the four of them received an urgent call from America's hometown.

"Uh, I think something's happening with your other friends here," the call explained. "We don't what it is, but I have a feeling something is hacking your friends' NerveGears that causes them to have unusually high amounts of stress in their bodies. We managed to lockdown the system, but it seems the hackers only targeted your friends. The other patients didn't get any kind of attack, so for now, we're trying to prevent from happening again. But it be better of two of you could watch over them. There are only four of you that managed to wake up and this is too much to ask, but we've sent an emergency request to your superiors and they're all approved it. Please consider this as an order from them."

Once they all heard of it, they gathered around in a circle on America's bed.

"Alright, so I guess we have to split up," America began. "I don't really like the way this is going, especially since there's already not a lot of us, not counting Kirito and Leafa."

"You don't think the attack had something to do with the others trapped in ALO, do you?" Germany asked him. "They were the only ones that got hacked, after all. Everyone else looked fine."

"Most likely," England guessed. "For some reason, someone or something really wanted the others dead. It couldn't be because of Kiku; otherwise, they wouldn't have attacked them in the first place."

"That's right," France agreed. "I guess whatever Japan found in SAO unintentionally got us involved in it as well." He paused for a moment. "Remember that email Japan sent you, Alfred?"

"Yeah," America replied. He took out his laptop and logged on, searching for the email, in which he showed out to them. "Why, did you recall something?"

France shook his head, but he pointed at one part of the email. "'Everything that happened in Aincrad had everything to do what's going on in my country,'" he read out loud, "'something that I got myself into that my boss never from the start.'" He looked up at Alfred. "Not only did Kiku not know it's going to happen, but we also ended up the same fate as he is. Our friends nearly died from a cardiac arrest from that attack…"

"Because they knew we're going to eventually find out everything behind SAO," Germany finished for him.

"And if our bosses find out…" England said, but he trailed off as he realised the outcome.

"We're going to turn against each other," America added.

Silence.

"So...back to square one," France said, trying to bring back together again. "Two of us have to go back to watch over the others, while the other two find them in ALO alongside Kirito. Who are they going to be?"

"I think England and Germany have to stay here," America suggested. "I want to give England a chance to get the spotlight. I already did mine in SAO, so why not?" He turned to Germany. "And I know you wanted find Italy in the game…" Then he faced England, who turned away from him. "Besides the ones that are trapped are closer to you guys anyway."

"Thanks, America," Germany replied, smiling a little. "We'll do our best on our end, then."

"And we'll do ours as well," France agreed.

"Promise you won't let anything happen to them?" England asked America, finally speaking up.

"Just say hi to Matt for me when you see him, okay?"

* * *

_Okay, so now we're down to just two people in ALO. Everyone is splitting up after finding out that something or someone tried to kill the unconscious countries. I didn't really come up with that idea until a couple of days ago...okay, more like a friend suggested it to me because I really am having a horrible writer's block. _

_Which brings me into something important: I've been having this writer's block for quite some time now, not only because I just came back from visiting my childhood friend. Later in the month, I'm going to start my final year at university. Because of that, I'm going to have to put the story into an indefinite hiatus until the holidays or when I finally finish uni. I already don't enjoy having to update less often because of school, but the fact that I'm at an age where I should start making priorities in life is something I have to do eventually. I've already failed a class before...that's enough to put me into a reality check. And seeing what I'm going to have for class this year (as well as having a part-time job soon), I probably won't even have time to write, let alone log on just to check._

_Since I've deleted my author notes or kept them as short as possible, I don't care if I spammed your email telling you that I've updated my story at least 18 times in a row. You can simply stop following it and problem is solved. I won't read the reviews either, mainly because it's just one or two people that does it anyway...it's kinda pointless on my part. Otherwise, you won't see me for a long while...I might be online once in a while but after the second week of August, I'll disable the PM feature. I want to start focusing on school by then._


End file.
